The wreck of the Benvenue

In November 1891 the south coast of Kent was lashed by a series of vicious gales that did a great deal of damage both ashore and at sea. There were reports of houses and hotels at Folkestone that had windows blown in, chimneys blown down, and roofing tiles ripped off. One lady was overpowered by the wind as she left her house and was hurled against iron railings and broke her arm. The driver of a butchers cart was blown out of his seat and his cart overturned.

The havoc caused at sea was just as terrible. The most tragic victim was the Benvenue, a full-rigged ship of 2000 tons bound from London to Sydney. At 6am on wed 11^th November 1891 she ran into a ferocious gale that whipped up enormous seas. The ship struck bottom in about 7 fathoms of water and the waves began to pound it to pieces. It took 15 minutes to disappear beneath the waves and the crew were forced to huddle together in the mizzen top rigging . At low water every stitch of canvas had blown away.

The Sandgate lifeboat Mayer de Rothschild couldn’t be launched because of the ferocious seas and was taken to Hythe to try from there. But it capsized in the attempt and one man was killed. Some of the rockets that were fired from the shore in an attempt to secure a ship-to-shore-line hit the crewmen and one was quite badly injured in this way. Several of the survivors had rope marks across their faces, made by the flying lines.

By 9.30 pm the capsized lifeboat had been righted and eventually managed to reach the Benvenue. Twenty seven survivors were landed but captain Moddrel and four members of the crew were drowned. The next morning the surviving members drew up a memorandum which they all signed expressing their heartfelt gratitude to their rescuers and thanks for the kind way in which they were treated by the people of Folkestone, especially at the Queens Hotel and the Harbour Restaurant.

Queen Victoria was so impressed by news of the rescue that she gave permission for her profile to be represented on a special medal that was awarded to each crew member of the lifeboat. In addition Cox’n Hennessy was awarded the Albert medal second class, and second Cox’n Sadler received the silver medal of the RNLI.

The lifeboat crew also received £100 among them all from Miss de Rothschild who had presented the boat to the town a few years before.