One of Cornwall's popular beach restaurants is named after the Welloe,
The Welloe is named after an area of sea that can just about be seen at low tide,. It has a rich history of Shipwrecks. PLEASE READ ON.
The Welloe: A Smuggler’s Offshore Landmark
The Welloe takes its name from a sea area off the coast that can only be identified at very low tide, when the waves can be seen breaking over it. This hidden feature has a long association with shipwrecks and smuggling, its position making it both hazardous to shipping and valuable to those who understood the coast.
After a long career in smuggling, Harry Carter, Cornwall’s most famous smuggler, was born at Pengersick and later retired to a farm at Rinsey, where he spent his later years. Lying just offshore below Rinsey, the Welloe would have been a familiar and useful landmark to Carter and other local smugglers.
At high tide, a larger vessel could lie offshore near the Welloe and unload contraband. As the tide fell, the cargo could be taken up by small boats or gigs, which were able to approach closer to land and move the goods quietly and efficiently. The use of such offshore drop-points reduced risk and made full use of the natural rhythms of the sea.
A nostalgic photo below showing beachgoers and cars believed to be in the early 1950's
The photo below is Hendra beach end of Praa Sands, just before Rinsey head. There is a WW2 Pillbox located on the beach there .Further on along the beach is Stones Reef, one of Cornwalls most popular beach bars & restaurants.
SHIPWRECKS AROUND THE WELLOE
According to Cornwall National Landscape In 1855, the Yacht 'Minerva' hit the Welloe and sank almost immediately in deep water. The crew of four escaped in the ship's boat.
On the 7th October 1879 the sloop, 'Rival' of Jersey, struck the Wellow and sank immediately. The crew took to the ship's boat and landed at Prussia Cove.
In August 1863 the vessel 'Ranger' hit the Welloe, a rock offshore from Rinsey Head, and sank in eight minutes. The crew escaped and landed ashore at Porthleven in the ship's tender.
In August 1863 the vessel 'Ranger' hit the Welloe, a rock offshore from Rinsey Head, and sank in eight minutes. The crew escaped and landed ashore at Porthleven in the ship's tender
The lugger 'Queen of the Bay' (a traditional two- or three-masted fishing vessel) was driven ashore and wrecked at Rinsey Head in 1899. The vessel was lost in a gale after breaking her moorings at Newlyn.
The Norwegian barque 'Atalanta' was broken to pieces at Rinsey Head in 1867. The vessel was embayed and wrecked in a heavy gale with loss of all crew. Small quantities of coal were washed up and it was supposed that was a portion of her cargo. According to the newspaper Royal Cornwall Gazette 10 January 1867. Up to Thursday evening ten bodies had been recovered from the doomed ship which came
ashore just below Rinsey Cliffs.
In 1905 the barque steel-hulled 'Noisel' was driven ashore at Praa Sands. The vessel was carrying 600 tons of armour plate, taken from the gun turrets of obsolete French battle ships. The vessel was driven broadside on to the shore and broke up. Two of the nine crew drowned swimming ashore. Parts of the cargo are said to remain in the sands but these may be the surviving remains of other vessels and cargos.
THE NOISEL
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