This record comprises a documentary reference to a shipping casualty which has been assigned to the maritime named location CEFN SIDAN SANDS pending more information which may allow a more precise location for the loss to be assigned.

Event and Historical Information:
The LA JEUNE EMMA was a wooden brig. At time of loss, the vessel was on passage from Fort Royal, Martinique, to le Havre, carrying a cargo of rum, sugar, spices, coffee, cotton and ginger. The brig was also carrying passengers who included a Colonel Colquelin of the French marines and his 12year-old daughter Adeline, who was niece to Josephine Empress of France (wife of Bonaparte) and their two servants. The captain of the brig, De Chatellan, made a mistake in navigation, causing him to believe Land's End to be Finistere and Lundy the coast of Ushant, and so he continued north. The brig ran onto the eastern tip of Cefn Sidan Sands during the night of 21 November 1828. By daybreak, with the seas washing over the deck, 13 had been washed overboard including Colonel Colquelin and his daughter. Only six people survived. The Cambrian News and Carmarthen News reported the event and the looting that took place. The Carmarthen Militia had to be turned out to control the local people who 'robbed and ill-treated the helpless and perishing'. Nine of those who lost their lives were buried at Pembrey where a memorial marks the grave. A memorial slab, commemorating the dead of this and two other nineteenth century shipwrecks (Pickering Dodge (NPRN 274056) and Brothers (NPRN 273864)) on Cefn Sidan sands, is mounted on the chancel south wall of St Illtyd's Church (NPRN 101623).

Sources include:
Bennett, T, 1987, Shipwrecks around Wales, Vol 1, pg61-2
Smith, G, 1991, Shipwrecks of the Bristol Channel, pg45-8

Maritime Officer, RCAHMW, December 2008.