Images Dated 2019 November

RNLI lifeboat Arab I at the quay, Padstow, Cornwall. 1883-1900

The lifeboat Arab I under sail off the quay at Padstow with the railway yards in the background. The lifeboat has a full compliment of women and children passengers with a good sized crowd of onlookers on the quay. It is noticeable that the crew of the Lifeboat are wearing cork life jackets, however, the passengers are not. RNLI Arab I (34 foot x 8 foot) was a gift from Mr R.A.B. Preston who had been saved from his yacht Arab. She was wrecked on 11th April 1900, without any loss of crew, while assisting the Lowestoft trawler Peace and Plenty. The steam lifeboat, James Stevens No 4, was also lost on the same night, together with eight members of her crew. Three crew members of the Peace and Plenty also lost their lives. Photographer: Unknown

© From the collection of the RIC

The wreck of the collier Bessie, with all that remains of the wrecked Vulture in the surf beyond, Carbis Bay, Lelant, Cornwall. 1893

A view of the Bessie wrecked at Carbis Bay, broadside to the surf, with the machinery of the Vulture beyond. SS Bessie (ON 49984) was an iron three masted brigantine rigged steamer of 287 tons gross, built in 1865 for the busy Hayle to Bristol trade and launched by Harvey and Company of Hayle. She was sold in 1889 to James Richards of Penarth and ran aground at Carbis Bay on 18th November 1893 while carrying coal from Cardiff to Portland, under the command of Captain David Moloney. Cintra and Vulture were wrecked on the same occasion. On page 84 of Cornish Shipwrecks, by Clive Carter, is a description of the days events: 'On 17th November 1893 came the 'Cintra Gale'. It had been a particularly stormy month, and soon after the 418-ton iron collier Cintra of Liverpool left Newport old dock for Dartmouth on the night of the 15th the wind again freshened from the ESE. It increased, and at 4pm next day Captain Henry Green of Brixham anchored in seven fathoms a mile off Carbis Bay. A few hours later another collier fled for shelter, the 345-ton Vulture of Cardiff, Hole master, and likewise bound for Dartmouth. At dusk they were joined by none other than the Bessie, whose anchor clattered down only half a mile from where she had grounded in 1866. She was bound from Cardiff to Portland under the command of Captain David Maloney. Captain Green of the Cintra prepared to slip and steam seaward, but huge seas were already smashing on board. Stanchions were buckled, ventilators snapped off, and at 2am the windlass seized up, jamming the anchor chains solid. As dawn broke the gale made its final shift to NNE; the Cintra was ready to sink at anchor, and men who tried to cut the fouled chains with hammers and chisels were driven back to shelter of the bridge. Captain Green hoisted a distress signal and gave orders for the lifeboat to be lowered but it capsized as it touched the water, and chief engineer Rogers, fire-man Summers and two able seamen disappeared in the surf. As Cintra lurched on to the sands it was every man for himself. Captain Green, steward Jones, two engineers and a fire-man jumped overboard, but able seaman Ash of Brixham, though handed a lifebelt by the captain, stayed behind, hoping the collier would ebb dry. The others were dragged ashore by coastguards and rocket men, but the chief engineer and the fireman died half an hour after rescue. Meanwhile, the crew of the Vulture, all of whom came from St Ives and Hayle, were landing by breeches-buoy. A few minutes after Captain Hole came ashore the Cintra, which lay only 100 yards away, suddenly broke up, drowning able seaman Ash. The Bessie's crew were also soon rescued, though the gale at this time was sufficient to stop dead both morning trains a mile from Carbis Bay, where the GWR branch line from St Erth crossed the exposed dunes. Later in the day the 936-ton iron screw steamer Rosedale of London, Dickenson master, in ballast from Southampton to Cardiff, wallowed past St Ives pier and went broadside on to Porthminster beach'. Photographer: Unknown

© From the collection of the RIC

Madonna and Child, Rogier van der Weyden (1399-1464)

Oil on panel, Dutch School, 15th century. Dutch artist Rogier van der Weyden was one of the most profound and influential painters of the 15th century. He was internationally famed for the naturalism of his detail and his expressive pathos. He created a range of types, for portraits and for religious subjects, which were repeated throughout the Netherlands, the Iberian peninsula, and even Italy, until the mid 16th century. He was apprenticed to Robert Campin in Tournai from March 1427 to August 1432 but he soon equalled his master and was later to influence Campin's own work. In 1435 he was made painter to the city of Brussels. In 1450 he may have travelled to Rome. He worked for Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, and for foreign princes, as well as for the city and church. Rogier van der Weyden was highly successful and internationally famous in his lifetime. By the latter half of the 15th century, he had eclipsed Jan van Eyck in popularity. However, his fame lasted only until the 17th century, and largely due to changing taste, he was almost totally forgotten by the mid 18th century. His reputation was slowly rebuilt during the following 200 years and today he is known, with Campin and van Eyck, as the third (by birth date) of the three great Early Flemish artists, and widely as the most influential Northern painter of the 15th century. The Madonna and Child was a traditional subject for Renaissance artists, commissioned both by the Church and by private individuals. The use of oil paint on wooden panel, rather than egg tempera which was the dominant medium in Italy during this period, is a particularly Northern European development which gradually spread south to Italy through the 15th century

© RIC