This record comprises a documentary reference to a shipping casualty which has been assigned to the maritime named location ST BRIDE'S BAY pending more information which may allow a more precise location for the loss to be assigned.

Event and Historical Information:
The INCREASE was a wooden sailing vessel, registered at Scarborough and returning from the British Garrison at St Kitts to Liverpool with a cargo of condemned gunpowder and muskets. The vessel was driven ashore at Druidston Haven, St Bride's Bay on 5 January 1791. The master of the vessel, Francis Pawson, the storekeeper Joseph Anthony, a woman passenger and a crew of eight stayed with the ship until it was high and dry and then left with their personal belongings. A large crowd gathered around the wreck, some to plunder others to unload under the direction of the store master. However, barrels of gunpowder were thrown over the side onto rocks rather than into the sea, and the plunderers began to remove the copper hoops smashing the barrels open. One of the pillagers snatched up a musket and dashed it against a rock which produced a single spark which ignited the gunpowder. Over sixty people were burned, one woman was killed on the spot and seven others died a few days later. The Rector of Nolton Parish, the Rev Moses Grant, wrote a vivid account. Plundering continued until, two days later when the militia arrived, only the only rigging and hull remained. The local people who were arrested and appeared for trial at Hereford were later acquitted.

Sources include:
Gater, D, 1992, Historic Shipwrecks of Wales, pg102-3
Goddard, T, 1983, Pembrokeshire Shipwrecks, pg58-60
Larn and Larn Shipwreck Database 2002
Lloyds List, 11 January 1791, issue number 2263

Maritime Officer, RCAHMW, December 2010.