Iota was a wooden barque built in Bideford in 1866 and weighing 572 tons. The ship was owned by an Italian firm named Mazella based in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

and was wrecked near

Tintagel Tintagel () or Trevena ( kw, Tre war Venydh, meaning ''Village on a Mountain'') is a civil parish and village situated on the Atlantic coast of Cornwall, England. The village and nearby Tintagel Castle are associated with the legends surroundin ...

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

, on 20 December 1893.

The wreck

The Iota was en route from

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

with a cargo of coal. The ship was driven against Lye Rock in a storm at around 5pm by which time it was already dark. Onlookers at nearby Willapark watched helplessly as mountainous waves pounded the boat.

The rescue

The eleven Italian crew and one boy attempted to either swim to shore or climb from one of the ship's masts to the pinnacle of Lye Rock. One of the sailors tried to help the fourteen-year-old boy, Domenico Catanese to shore but both drowned. Two crew made it onto Lye Rock but it was clear that they would not make it to safety without help. Three local men led by Thomas Brown were joined by a coastguard and once the tide was low enough, they battled wind, waves and darkness to climb Lye Rock. Not understanding any Italian, they reassured the two stricken sailors by grasping their hands. Seven other men were discovered on a ledge lower down the rock and Charles Hambly, a quarryman at nearby

Long Grass Quarry Long Grass Quarry (also known as Cliff Quarry) is a small, disused slate quarry between Tintagel and Trebarwith on the north coast of Cornwall, South West England, which was worked up until 1937. It was the last of the slate quarries on this st ...

was lowered on a rope. All seven sailors were successfully lifted up the cliff and from here, they were taken to the mainland via

breeches buoy A breeches buoy is a rope-based rescue device used to extract people from wrecked vessels, or to transfer people from one place to another in situations of danger. The device resembles a round emergency personal flotation device with a leg harn ...

Aftermath

Domenico Catanese was buried in the churchyard of St Materiana's church, although the inscription has his name as Catanese Domenico. For his valour, Charles Hambly was presented with the Testimonial on Vellum. The story is told in verse in ''Musings on Tintagel and its Heroes'' by Joseph Brown, 1897.

References

{{Reflist 1893 in the United Kingdom Cornish shipwrecks Maritime incidents in 1893 Tintagel