Below is a short extract from the Investigation by the Wreck Commissioner into the loss of the barque ‘SARAH ANDERSON’ 17th October 1886 at Gull Rock with the loss of all on board.
At around 10 a.m. on the 16th October the barque is seen a little to the eastward of Tintagel Head, and at a distance of about two miles from the shore, with her head to the westward under fore and main topsails, the wind blowing a whole gale from north to N. by W., but apparently making little or no progress.
The tide at the time was ebbing, and was setting to the westward; and at about 11.30 a.m. she had passed Tintagel Head, and was about half a-mile to the southward of it, when the crew were observed to be cutting away the fore rigging.
Soon afterwards the fore mast went over the side, and in about a quarter of an hour the main and mizen masts followed.
In the meantime the anchors had been let go, and she was brought up opposite to Trebarwith Strand, and at a distance of about two miles from the shore.
At about half-past one the tide turned, and from that time she seemed to ride more easily, the tide being opposed to the wind.
She remained there at anchor until about 8 p.m., when she was observed to show a light, which was at once answered by the coastguardsmen on shore with a signal rocket, and from that time until about 9 p.m. the light was occasionally shown.
At 11 p.m. it became a little clearer, the moon having come out, and they could then distinguish her hull, and by that time she had drifted about a mile nearer to the Otterham Rocks.
They continued to see her at intervals until about 1.30 a.m., when a flare-up was observed, and almost immediately afterwards a spout of white water shot up into the air, from which they concluded that she had gone down, nothing more having been seen of her.
Very little wreckage from her came to shore, but some few days afterwards a masonic certificate, with the captain's name upon it, a night shirt, with his wife's name upon it, and the ship's flag were picked up on the beach, which clearly showed the vessel to have been the "Sarah Anderson."
The Court, having carefully inquired into the circumstances of the above-mentioned shipping casualty, finds, that when the said vessel left Falmouth she was in all respects in a good and seaworthy condition; that her cargo was properly stowed and secured; that her loss was due to the extreme violence of the gale which she encountered on the 16th-17th of October last; and that every effort was made to render assistance to the crew by the coastguard, who were in charge of the life-saving apparatus at Boscastle and at Port Isaac, and by the coxswain of the lifeboat at Port Isaac.
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