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 BROTHERS was a wooden barque, built in Hull in 1823. The vessel was lost on Cefn Sidan Sands on the 19th and 20th December 1833 while returning from Bahia, Brazil, to Liverpool with a cargo of 4000 buffalo hides and baled cotton under Master Edmund Salmond. The ship is listed in the Lloyds Register for 1832-33 (B-645) as being 350 tons, being built with iron knees and having been copper sheathed in 1830.
The ship's carpenter was rescued by local people, but the remainder of the 16 crew were drowned. When the ship broke in two, the local people so called the `Men of the Small Axes? used a procession of ponies and carts to take the cargo and anything else of value away including the best timbers. The local justice of the peace, J H Rees, wrote to the Home Office to report that carts came from 20 miles around to carry away the bales of cotton and timber. The constables that he stationed along the sands were unable to prevent the plundering. The Justice had himself been assaulted by two men.
The loss of the BROTHERS was reported in the Cambrian News on the 28th December 1833 as follows:
"SHIPWRECKS.—We regret to state that the barque Brothers, of Liverpool, 375 tons register, Edmund Salmond, master, from Bahia bound to Liverpool, laden with hides, cotton, and horns, was wrecked on the 19th inst., on Cefn Sidan Sands, near Pembrey, Carmarthenshire The crew, 16 in number, were all drowned except the carpenter, who was providentially saved by lashing himself to a part of the wreck. He states that the vessel was dismasted off the Western Islands, on the 9th inst., and that they experienced continued gates of wind to the day they struck on the above sands. The principal part of the cargo was lost and plundered before the Custom-house Officers arrived on the spot. J. H. Rees, Esq., of Killymaenllwyd, came to the wreck a few hours after the officers, and was joined by Mr. Davies, of Frood, who, with few exceptions, were the only force that showed any inclination to protect what remained on the sands on the 21st inst. By their exertions, and the officers generally, about 120 bales of cotton and a few hides have been saved. We are sorry to add, that persons near the coast, who had the power of rendering much valuable service on this melancholy occasion, acted with the greatest apathy, in not setting an example to their dependants and less informed neighbours, by endeavouring to save the property, and when applied to for the use of their carts, several refused to bring them out. Large bales of cotton have been washed on shore in the neighbourhood of Kidwelly, the Ferry-side, &c. supposed to have been part of the cargo of the above ship."
A memorial slab, commemorating the dead of this and two other 19th century shipwrecks, PICKERING DODGE (NPRN 274056) and LA JEUNE EMMA (NPRN 240649), on Cefn Sidan sands, is mounted on the chancel south wall of St Illtyd's Church (NPRN 101623).
Sources include:
Cambrian News 28th December 1833 https://newspapers.library.wales/view/3328145/3328148/14/
Gater, D, 1992, Historic Shipwrecks of Wales, pg56
Larn and Larn Shipwreck Index of the British Isles, Volume 5, Section 8, South Wales (EH).
Lloyds Register, 1832-33 (shipowners). B-645 https://archive.org/details/HECROS1833S/page/n101/mode/2up
J. Whitewright, RCAHMW, February 2023