The Resolven: A Historical Mystery at Sea

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

One Friday in August, the Resolven was found drifting off the coast near Baccalieu Head by the sailors on a British Royal Navy gunboat, HMS Mallard. The Resolven was a Welsh merchant brig, but the captain and his crew were not aboard when she was found. Neither were any of the passengers.

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

The captain is said to have carried a personal fortune in gold coins on board, but the gold was not on the brig when it was found. It is also thought that none of the missing men were ever found, but there is some dispute to that. 

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.

An Old-Time Hero: Joshua James

by Naomi Rawlings

"You have to go out. You don’t have to come back."

Two years ago I did a series of posts about the Unite States Life-Saving Service. (If you want to brush up on what exactly the Life-Saving Service was and how they went about rescuing people from wrecked ships, here's a link to some of my old posts). 

"You have to go out. You don’t have to come back." This was the unofficial motto of the U.S Life-Saving Service, a precursor to the United States Coast Guard. Back before helicopters and radar and power boats, life-saving teams braved stormy waters with little more than rowboats, storm suits, and life rings.

Out of the hundreds of men that risked their lives for the life-saving service, one man stands out as

the most decorated and most well known. His name is Joshua James, and he lived in Massachusetts. At the age of ten, James watched his mother and baby sister die when the ship they were sailing on got caught in a storm and wrecked a half mile from the harbor.

When he was fifteen, James joined a group of volunteers from the local humane society was the launched a surfboat to go rescue passengers from a floundering ship named Mohawk. That was Jame's first life-saving rescue, but he went on to spend the next sixty years of his life rescuing sailors. First, he worked as a volunteer life-saver for the Massachusetts Humane Society, and then he worked as a station keeper for the U.S. Life-Saving Service. He's credited with saving over 200 lives, and was awarded the Gold Lifesaving Medal from the life-saving service as well as several other medals from the Massachusetts Humane Society. 

James died at the age of 75, after returning from running a life-saving drill in stormy weather. He apparently paddled for over an hour with the other men of his crew while they tested a new surfboat. Upon returning to the beach, he died of a heart attack.

I modeled the hero in my newest Eagle Harbor novel after Joshua James. My fictional Elijah Cummings grew up in Eagle Harbor, Michigan, on the shores of Lake Superior. He spent two years sailing the Atlantic Ocean and saw life-saving teams in action. After his father drowns in a storm, Elijah returns to Eagle Harbor. Unable to sit by and watch when ships flounder coming into port, he starts a volunteer life-saving team. But the icy conditions and strong storms prove difficult for his volunteers and secondhand equipment. He soon finds himself fighting for the U.S. Life-Saving Service to establish a legitimate station—as well as fighting for the woman he’s loved for fifteen years.

Giveaway: Answer one of the questions below to be eligible for a paperback copy of either Love's Unfading Light or Love's Every Whisper. Winner's choice.

Question: Do you enjoy novels where the characters have unusual jobs and hobbies? Do you personally know anyone with a dangerous job that puts their life at risk? How do family members respond when a person they love has a risky job?

*****

Love's Every Whisper

Victoria Donnelly simply wants to do something right, at least once in her lifetime. With five years of failed courtships behind her and the calendar inching closer to another birthday, she's determined to redeem herself and snag a proposal from a wealthy childhood acquaintance, Gilbert Sinclair. But returning to Eagle Harbor stirs up long forgotten memories. And worse, old affection for her betrothed's enemy. 

Elijah Cummings has loved Victoria for fifteen years. But fishermen's sons don't marry shipping barons' daughters. He knows it. She knows it. The entire town knows it. Resolved to keep his distance from Victoria, Elijah focuses on establishing a much needed life-saving station, risking his own life by rescuing sailors stuck aboard shipwrecks. 

He knows how to save drowning sailors, but how is he to save a woman from the biggest mistake of her life—without destroying both their hearts in the process? 

Purchase Love's Every Whisper for $3.99

Purchase Love's Unfading Light (Eagle Harbor Book 1) on sale for $0.99 through 10/2

Florida's 500th Anniversary and El Galeon

Are you aware that this year, 2013, marks the 500th anniversary since Juan Ponce de Leon landed in Florida? The state of Florida is doing some special things to commemorate the occasion, and while vacationing in St. Augustine last month, my family and I got to see one piece of the celebration. I wanted to share a bit about it with you.



El Galeon, © Jennifer Uhlarik

When we arrived in St. Augustine for our few days away, it didn’t take us long to notice a huge wooden ship docked beside the Bridge of Lions. We quickly learned that the ship was a life-size, all-wooden replica of a Spanish Galleon, like those Ponce de Leon and his contemporaries would’ve sailed. El Galeon, as it was called, was making the rounds of several Florida ports—Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Cape Canaveral, and St. Augustine—docking for several weeks at each in order for visitors to take self-guided tours of the impressive vessel. El Galeon had such a great turnout the first weekend in St. Augustine that they opted to stay from several months in order to accommodate the visitors.

Looking toward the stern, ©Jennifer Uhlarik

The life-size replica measures 170 feet in length, and weighs 495 tons. Forty crew members manned the ship and sailed it on the same general path that Ponce de Leon took to Florida 500 years ago. (You can see an interactive map of their route here). I have never been much of a sea-faring person, so stepping onto such a ship was awe-inspiring. It was also pretty mind-boggling when I began to realize that, while large, a ship this size didn’t provide a lot of personal space for that many people. And when you stop to consider that back in the days of New World exploration, many times an explorer would set out with several ships, only to lose some along the way. When that happened, the crew of the abandoned ship would get absorbed into the crews of the other ships. So by the end of their voyages, these ships often carried two or three times the number of people than they started with. Just imagine the trouble getting to use the bathroom must have been. LOL

Bathroom. Was this authentic to the time period?
©Jennifer Uhlarik

On a side note, one of the interesting things we were told while vacationing was that many of the explorers’ ships were lost not to storms or running around, but rather to a particular type of clam, the shipworm or toredo worms, that lives in saltwater and eats wood. These worm-like clams would begin to bore into the wooden vessels, and over time, the ships would spring leaks. When the crew couldn’t stop the incoming water, they would inform the captain that the ship couldn’t be saved, so they would flag down their sister ships, abandon their own, and watch it sink as they sailed away. After stepping foot on such a magnificent ship as El Galeon, I can only imagine the heartbreak such a sight would cause.

Tall ship! ©Jennifer Uhlarik

While El Galeon has departed from St. Augustine as of July 23, my understanding is that the crew will be sailing up the eastern seaboard for the next 3-5 years on tour. If you missed the ship in Florida, you might still have an opportunity to see it in another eastern port. And we also were told that El Galeon had petitioned to make St. Augustine its home port while not out touring. At the time we were there, the petition was being considered, but no decision had been made. Hopefully those in power will allow it, as it seems only fitting to me that such a ship should make historic St. Augustine home. You can find more impressive photos here.

Ship's bell. ©Jennifer Uhlarik

Now it’s your turn. Have you ever been onboard a boat or ship (including small boats or cruise ships)? What was your experience like?




Interesting view of Anastasia Island from El Galeon.
©Jennifer Uhlarik

Jennifer Uhlarik discovered the western genre as a pre-teen, when she swiped the only “horse” book she found on her older brother’s bookshelf. A new love was born. Across the next ten years, she devoured Louis L’Amour westerns and fell in love with the genre. In college at the University of Tampa, she began penning her own story of the Old West. Armed with a B.A. in writing, she has won the 2012 CWOW Phoenix Rattler, 2012 ACFW First Impressions, and 2013 FCWC contests, all in the historical category. She is also the winner of the 2013 Central Florida ACFW chapter's "Prompt Response" contest. In addition to writing, she has been a schoolteacher of English, literature, and history, as well as a marketing director. Jennifer is active in American Christian Fiction Writers and lifetime member of the Florida Writers Association. She lives near Tampa, Florida, with her husband, teenaged son, and four fur children.

Sea Faring Heroine - Mary Patten!! By MaryLu Tyndall

I came across this story while researching Lady Pirates. It's an incredible tale that I won't have time here to cover in depth.  But I hope you'll find it as fascinating as I did. Especially because it happened in the year 1856 when women still had few rights.

http://alturl.com/4qjuu

It happened on board a ship named Neptune's Car, which was a magnificent clipper ship carrying a valuable cargo of iron, sheet lead, and mining machinery from New York to the California gold fields. The captain was Joshua Patten, a 29 year old hardened seamen with vast experience upon the seas. Tired of being without him for the first two years of their marriage, Mary Patten convinced her husband to bring her along on this voyage. Her husband was happy to comply. The ship set sail from New York on July 1st 1856 and sped southward under full sail. During the early days of the voyage, at Mary's request, Joshua was happy to teach his wife the art of Navigation. He taught her about winds and tides. He showed her how to calculate the ship's position with a sextant and chronometer, how to work out the correct course and how to keep a daily log of the ship's progress.  She didn't realize how valuable these skills would be to her very soon.

http://alturl.com/kgekc

The storms off Cape Horn during October 1856 were so ferocious that one experienced sea captain was forced to retreat and take cover at Rio De Janeiro after his sails were torn to shreds and ten of his crew had been washed overboard.  Soon the Neptune's Car sailed into the midst of this "perfect" storm. Joshua Patten spent 8 days without sleep, trying to keep the ship afloat and ice from forming on the rigging.  Exhaustion overtook him and he finally collapsed on the deck. When Mary, his young wife, was called above, she instructed the men to bring him below and lash him to his bunk. After several hours, he seemed to be getting worse and Mary assumed he must be gravely ill.  Now what was she to do?

Usually the first mate takes over for the captain, but Joshua had removed the first mate due to negligence and replaced him with a man who had no idea how to navigate. To make matters worse, when the crew discovered the captain's condition, the original first mate tried to incite a mutiny!  Mary knew she had to do something quick or she'd lose the ship and its cargo to either a mutinous crew or the storm.  So, ordering all hands to muster on deck, she came above to address the crew.

http://alturl.com/mnjtb

Try to picture the scene with me. Mary was only 19, a petite woman with black hair and what one observer described as "large, dark, lustrous eyes and very pleasing features" She wore a long gown that was tossed to and fro in the wind and clasped a shawl about her shoulders.  A few weeks earlier she had learned she was pregnant. The crowd of men that faced her were rough, hardened sailors who had spent years at sea and had never taken an order from a woman. The ship bucked and leapt over massive swells, drenching them all in sea water, as the wind screamed and howled through the rigging. And through it all, this little lady climbed the ladder to the quarterdeck, planted her boots on the heaving deck, gripped the railing, and addressed the mob.

What she said exactly we do not know, but her job was to persuade these men to remain loyal to her husband and to herself and to deliver the cargo to San Francisco safely.  Somewhere in the howl of wind and sting of rain, she accomplished the impossible and the crew agreed to follow her orders.   She decided to head southeast out of the storm and into colder waters. Finally when the sun broke through the clouds she was able to get a good reading on their location and discovered they were 250 miles south of the Horn.  The waters were freezing and they spotted icebergs in the distance (certain death for any ship!)

Mary set double watches at night and put her keenest eyes in the tops during the day to navigate through the ice. For four long, frightening days, Neptune's Car eased her way west until finally they were free to head north into warmer waters. Mary's husband had two brief periods of recovery in between severe relaspses, one in which he lost his sight and the other in which he became deaf. Now Mary, at four months pregnant, was in full command of the ship. For the next 50 days, she did not even undress, sleeping in her clothes and focusing all her attention on getting to San Francisco.

In early November, they sighted the bay and on November 15th, Mary insisted on taking the helm and steering the salt-stained vessel into port.  Below, read a portion of the letter addressed to her by the Union Mutual Insurance Company, the underwriters for the voyage.

Nor do we know of an instance on record where a woman has, from force of circumstances, been called upon , or assumed command of, a large and valuable vessel, and exercised a proper control over a large number of seamen, and by her own skill and energy, impressing them with a confidence and reliance making all subordinate and obedient to that command

Pretty cool, huh?  And what's even cooler to me is that my maiden name is Patten. Hmm. Wonder if we are related?

For more stories about women's heroic adventures at sea, check out my new release, Forsaken Dreams!!  about a group of disgruntled Southerners who flee America after the Civil War and set sail for Brazil to start their own Southern Utopia!

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