SS Ixia & The Cape Cornwall Fog…
Winding down the steep, narrow lane from St Just towards Cape Cornwall,
The rugged cruelty of the place suddenly appears and a vicious wind roars,
As racks of boulders and sharp edged rocks lurk below to entice their maritime prey.
And Charles de Gaulle floats off the shore, disaster’s lure and distraction…
On June 30th, 1929, en route from Swansea to Constantinople with coal to haul,
A steamship, the Ixia foundered in thick fog and blundered helplessly off course,
Then ran aground on the Brisons, the prominent rocks offshore, guardians of the bay,
Resembling Charles de Gaulle reclining, wallowing in his depths of destruction…
Pete Ray…
30th June 2026…
97 years ago today…
I was at Cape Cornwall recently and it can be a wild and forbidding place…
I saw a photo of the wreck of the Ixia in the loo at the Old Coastguard Hotel in Mousehole and snapped a shot of it…
I had already written the poem included below about the Brisons, some years ago…
The two rocks reminded me then of historic figure Generale de Gaulle and they still do…
Ol’ Big Nose…
He lay, as if flattened
By this late autumnal blast,
Whilst wading off the Cape.
Scooped Pollack in huge calloused hands,
Perhaps…
His nose, as if aligned
With that incongruous monumental chimney
Towering atop the Cape,
Produced a triangle with a huge hypotenuse.
Perhaps…
His recline, as if resigned
To his fate and the torrential storms
Constantly pummelling the Cape,
Belied his eternal melancholy.
Perhaps…
Pete Ray…
An amazing rock formation, which reminded me of
Charles De Gaulle…
Brisons Rocks, Cape Cornwall, near St Just…
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