An area of widely dispersed wreckage was reported at this location, off Pen Brush headland, in October 1968 and 1996. The wreck was not located in a UKHO survey of the area in 2020 and has been amended to 'Dead'. Copper or copper-alloy fastenings, likely the latter given the known construction of the vessel (below) have been recovered from the site, reported to the Receiver of Wreck, and are displayed at the Sloop Inn at Porthgain.
Event and Historical Information:
The CALBURGA was a wooden barque built by A MacDougall, Maitland, Nova Scotia, in 1890. Technical and configuration specifications are given as 1406gt, 1350nt; 210ft long x 39ft 2in breadth x 23ft 2in depth; 1 deck; constructed of fir (or pine) with yellow metal fastenings; official number 90478. At the time of loss, the barque was owned by T Douglas, State Street, NewYork, and was under the command of D F Douglas transporting a cargo of timber from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Liverpool.
The CALBURGA was caught in the storm of 12-13 November 1915. Two of its masts went overboard and its remaining sails were blown out. The barque's plight was seen by the steamship GREAT SOUTHERN, but the barque was too near the rocks of Strumble Head to allow the steamer to approach. The barque ran aground on rocks near Pen Brush and began to break up. The Fishguard lifeboat CHARTERHOUSE was launched, but arrived to find the barque abandoned. The captain and 13 crew had managed to use their own boat to land at Aber-Bach.
Sources include:
Haverfordwest and Milford Haven Telegraph, 17 November 1915, p.4
Larn and Larn Shipwreck Database 2002
Lloyd's Register Casualty Returns, 1 October - 31 December 1915, p.13 (g)
Goddard, T, 1983, Pembrokeshire Shipwrecks, p.98
Receiver of Wreck Droits Database 2007 RCIM6/2/5
UKHO ID 9849: Contains public sector information, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0, from UK Hydrographic Office.
J. Whitewright, RCAHMW, January 2024.
This record was enhanced in 2020 with funding from Lloyd's Register Foundation as part of the project ‘Making the Link: Lloyd's Register and the National Monuments Record of Wales’. Visit Lloyd’s Register Foundation Heritage and Education Centre for more resources.