The story of the ship Resolven is a
sad and eerie one. It sailed on the east coast of Canada in the summer of 1884.
Captain John James of Cardiaganshire, Wales, had a crew of seven men besides
himself. They had also taken on four passengers, men who lived along the coast
of Newfoundland, in the Conception Bay area.
 |
This ship is a brig, the same type vessel as the Resolven.
Brig Wolverine By Unknown - [1], Public Domain,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/
w/index.php?curid=44844441
|
The ship had last been seen on
Wednesday evening, when it left Harbour Grace about 6 p.m. and passed the
Baccalieu lighthouse around midnight. What happened between then and Friday?
The men who found the abandoned
vessel guessed that the crew had been on board less than six hours before they
arrived. This was based on the facts that fires were still lit in the galley,
and the cabin table held food ready to eat. All her sails were set to catch the
wind. Despite a search of nearby shores, no trace was found.
Why had the people aboard left the
ship? And why all of them at once? Many guesses have been made, but none has
been proven.
The Resolven had had set sail from Aberystwyth, in Wales, months
earlier. It took its name from a town in Wales, also called Resolven.  |
Photo of Resolven, Wales, community hall:
Jaggery [CC BY-SA 2.0
(https://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by-sa/2.0)],via Wikimedia Commons
|
Here are some suggested theories as to why the men disappeared:
1. Iceberg alert. Many people believe the crew and passengers abandoned ship because they felt they were in danger of crashing into an iceberg and sinking, or else the ship was actually damaged by an iceberg. Either way, they may have feared for their lives if they stayed aboard.
I have not found records of the
extent of the damage to the Resolven at the time when it was found abandoned.
However, if the ship had sustained damage, it was not catastrophic. This brig
was towed to shore, refitted, and put back into service, so it could not have
been crippled or in immediate danger of going down, whether from iceberg, weather, or other natural causes.
2. Was there a mutiny? If so, why
did they all abandon the ship? Most mutineers either leave the vessel in a
ship’s boat or take over the ship and set the captain and loyal crew members
adrift. But everyone left the Resolven.
3. Could the Resolven have been
boarded by pirates? Possible, but no evidence substantiates this.
4. Could the passengers have
arranged the incident so that they could steal and escape with the captain’s
gold? This seems very possible, as the passengers would know the coast and
could plan together a way to benefit themselves and not get caught.
Captain James’s great-grandson has
done a lot of digging into this story. He’d heard about it from his
great-uncle, but wasn’t sure whether or not it was true. As a result, in
addition to receiving the captain’s New Testament, which was left aboard the
Resolven, Will Wain has made some interesting contacts in Canada and learned
some intriguing things that may or may not be facts.
 |
Captain John James's signature, in the New Testament he left on board the ship, now returned to his family.
Photo by Will Wain, used by permission.
|
In England’s National Archives, he found a copy of the ship’s log of the HMS Mallard, the vessel that found the Resolven adrift in 1884. Here was proof that his great-grandfather’s ship had really been discovered in the manner he’d heard. Wain posted about this on his website and later started a Facebook page about the Resolven.
He was contacted by a woman living
in Newfoundland who had seen his posts and had a story of her own to tell. She
told Wain that her own grandfather and his brother had told years ago of
finding a man’s body near the shore on the coast of Random Island. They said he
was dressed in a captain’s uniform and had been sitting under a tree, facing
the ocean.
 |
The captain's Welsh New Testament, found aboard the Resolven
Photo by Will Wain, used by permission
|
The body had no identification on
it, though the dead man did have a distinctive pocket watch. The woman claimed
her relatives found the body in the same month and year that the Resolven was
abandoned. She also said the two brothers had buried the body in an unmarked
grave in a small fishing village.
Wain traveled to Newfoundland and
met the woman and her brother. They showed him the area where the body was
allegedly found, but didn’t know the actual location of the grave. They also
told him that one of the men who found the body appeared to come into some money
about that time, and when he died his wife began spending much more than it
seemed logical for her to do. Was she spending the captain’s gold?
Another rumor uncovered in
Newfoundland is a tale that a man lived for a long time in an isolated coastal
community and might possibly be a survivor of the Resolven incident. That has
not been confirmed.
The Resolven is sometimes referred
to as “the Welsh Mary Celeste,” because of its similarities to the famous American
ship Mary Celeste, which was discovered adrift and deserted in the Atlantic
Ocean off the Azores Islands in 1872. Another ship’s crew found her deserted
but seaworthy and well provisioned. The last log entry had been made ten days
earlier. The ship’s boat was missing, but the captain's and crew's personal
belongings were undisturbed. None of those who had been on board were ever seen
or heard from again. The Resolven’s story seems like an echo to the Mary Celeste’s.
So, what do you think happened to
the men of the Resolven? Maybe you favor one of the theories above, or maybe
you have another suggestion. Do you believe the story of the dead man under the tree, and that he was in fact Captain James? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.
Will Wain, the captain's great-grandson, has his website, which is now under construction, at: http://www.smallersky.com/about.htm and his Facebook page about the Resolven is at: https://www.facebook.com/The-Ghost-Ship-of-Trinity-Bay-1487167924829228/
Because the web page is still under construction, I found the Facebook page more helpful at this time. Will also graciously allowed me to share some of the pictures here.
Giveaway: The Seafaring Women of the Vera B. is an adventurous
novel I wrote with my son Jim. If you like sea stories, we hope you’ll enjoy
this. To enter a drawing to win a copy of this book, comment below and be sure
to leave your contact information.
Susan Page Davis is the author of more than seventy novels
and novellas. She’s a two-time winner of the Inspirational Readers’ Choice
Award, and also a winner of the Carol Award and two Will Rogers Medallions, and
a finalist in the WILLA Awards and the More Than Magic Contest. A Maine native,
she lived for a while in Oregon and now lives in Kentucky. Visit her website
at: www.susanpagedavis.com, where you can sign up for her occasional newsletter
and read a short story on her romance page.
