The Loss of The Criccieth Castle by Cathy Woodhead                  -     in preparation

Catherine Thomas travelled the world with her ship's captain husband in the early 1900s, then on 15th July 1912 disaster struck their vessel, the Criccieth Castle.   It was mid-winter, in what is perhaps the stormiest region of the world, and for the next eight days the ship's company endured the most terrible sufferings.  Seven men were drowned, and one by one the others died of hunger, thirst and the fearful cold.  Day after day the captain stood at the steering-oar, watching his wife and four-year-old son lying helpless in the water at the bottom of the leaking lifeboat.  Finally, when the survivors were too weak to pull on the oars or to hoist the sail, deliverance came.  Despite the terrible ordeal she passed through, Mrs Thomas recovered completely, and two months after the landing she gave birth to a daughter. 

'The Wreck of The Criccieth Castle' is a true account of survival in the South Atlantic.

 In 2009 I was going through my mother, Jocelyn Greenway's papers and found a manuscript called 'The Wreck of the Criccieth Castle', together with a letter from a Catherine Thomas of Gorsannedd, Llangybi, Chwilog.  In her letter, Catherine confirms the story which my mother wrote for her using an article by Captain Thomas from 1913. It's a fantastic story, and what's really amazing is that Catherine was pregnant when they had to abandon ship. She was also taking care of their four-year-old son. In 1958 Catherine contacted the new British section of the International Association of Cape Horners - an association for those who have sailed round Cape Horn, and Commander Woollard, the founder of the British section, wanted Catherine's story for his book 'The last Of The Cape Horners'.  He asked my mother to help. Following my discovery of the story I have carried out a great deal of research to find out more about the ship and its crew.  This material plus many photographs and illustrations will soon lead to the publication of this book.                                                                                                          Cathy Woodhead  

Click here to read the story of The Wreck of The Criccieth Castle as written up by Jocelyn Greenway for Commander Woollard's book 'The Last of the Cape Horners' - be prepared to read about an ordeal few people could have survived.

Click here to read Graham Anthony's article "The survival of Captain Robert Thomas (1912) compared with Joshua Slocomb (1898) and Edward Shackleton (1915)"

Readers are welcome to quote from these articles, but please attribute the source because of Copyright protection.