The Wreck of the Criccieth Castle

A true story of survival in the South Atlantic

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. 

 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. She was the wife of Captain Robert Thomas. My mother probably met Catherine in 1958, perhaps as part of the Cape Horners - an association for those who have sailed round Cape Horn. In her letter, Catherine confirms the story which my mother must have written up after a conversation with her. Perhaps Jocelyn meant it to be published by the Cape Horners. 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.                      Cathy Woodhead

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 sat at the steering-oar, watching his wife and four-year-o1d boy lying helpless in the water at the bottom of the leaking boat.  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 presented her husband with a daughter.  Stories such as this, stories of long-continued hardship and dogged endurance, are rare in these days of fast ships and radar. 

Click here to read the story of The Wreck of the Criccieth Castle but 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)"

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