Maenporth

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Maenporth tidal estuary in Cornwall, with heron.

Maenporth is a seaside hamlet with one of the four beaches associated with Falmouth in Cornwall, United Kingdom.

The cove faces east and gives distant views on Pendennis Castle and the lighthouse on St Anthony's Head. To the north of the cove are the dangerous rocks of Newporth Head.

The coast road, between Mawnan and the Boslowick area of Falmouth, runs alongside the beach. Beyond the road is a tidal estuary supporting a range of birdlife, including herons and Little Egrets.

[edit] Visitor facilities

The beach shelves very gently and at low tide there is a large area of shallow water that is very popular for swimming in the summer. The beach has facilities for Scuba diving ^[1], Sea Kayaking and Boat Launching.

There is parking available on the beach, with a cafe ^[2] and public toilets.

The Cove bar and restaurant overlooks the beach ^[3]. On the hill above the beach there is modern holiday accommodation.

[edit] Wreck of the trawler Ben Asdale

The Scottish trawler Ben Asdale was shipwrecked in December 1978 below the low cliff .

On the evening of 30 December 1978 the freezer trawler Ben Asdale was off loading fish into the hold of the Russian factory ship Antartika, which was anchored in Falmouth Bay. The weather was appalling, with a force eight gale blowing and heavy snow falling. When the Ben Asdale had finished discharging her cargo of mackerel, she cast off her stern rope in preparation to move away from the anchored Antartika. Unfortunately the rope fouled her rudder and she would not respond to her helm. The skipper, Barney Coe, tried to get the Russians to re-secure the stern of his vessel but by now the fierce gale was dragging both boats. The Russians sent over two officers to assist in getting the steering working and shortly after the bow rope parted and the Ben Asdale was adrift at the mercy of the sea.

The skipper let go an anchor but it failed to hold, and as they were swept towards Maenporth beach, a Mayday was sent. With the wind now gusting force ten and the waves breaking over the trawler, she was out of control, and soon piled onto the rocks at the bottom of Newporth Head. As the boat struck the rocks one of the crew jumped over the side gravely injuring himself, and others threw out anything to act as life rafts.

By now, word of the trawler's troubles had spread and the three Billicliffe brothers who had a hotel by the beach rushed to the scene and with no regard for their own safety waded straight into the raging surf and during that night dragged three of the crew to safety. Up on Newporth head, the Coastguard had arrived and was setting up a breaches buoy. The blizzard was now so bad that nobody could see a thing, and searchlights were rigged. As the breaches buoy was connected to the stricken trawler she lurched and rolled onto her side, jamming all the gear. Luckily the rescue helicopter had by now arrived from RNAS Culdrose (HMS Seahawk) but could not see what was going on down on the hulk of the trawler because of the swirling blizzard.

The Coastguard set up a radio link with the pilot, to guide the helicopter, which had to fly backwards over the wreck because of the winds and the nearness of the Headland. Over a period of about one and a half hours the helicopter lowered its winch eight times and successfully lifted off a crewman. Whilst all this was happening three of the crew despaired and tried to swim to a shore that looked temptingly near. In the end eleven people were saved, but sadly in spite of all the efforts of the emergency services and the courageous Billicliffe brothers, three men (two Britons and a Russian) were drowned, their bodies washed up the next day on Maenporth Beach ^[4]. ^[5] ^[6]