Incredible Vintage Photographs From The Gibson Archives Of Ships Wrecked On British Coasts

1874, Minnehaha: St Mary’s, Isle of Scilly

The Gibson family’s photographs of shipwrecks were taken in the late 19th and 20th centuries. Four generations of the Gibson family (1872 to 1997) photographed over 200 wrecks along the coasts of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly in south England. The Gibsons also compiled telegraph messages of the human and mercantile cost of ships running aground off the hazardous coast. Some of these are also featured below. The Royal Museums Greenwich bought the family’s work for £122,500 ($158,000).

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SS Blue Jacket (United Kingdom) November 1898: She was unaccountably wrecked on a clear night a few yards from the Longships lighthouse, Lands End, Cornwall.

SV Granite Slate

1886, Albert Wilhelm: Lelant

Jeune Hortense, 1888

SS Punta- Steamer from Panama ran into the Sevenstones and crew abandoned ship. She later sank.

SS Tripolitania

Jeanne Gougy

The Suffolk, Lizard, 1886 , a steamship carrying general cargo and cattle from Baltimore to London. Courtesy Sotheby’s.

SV Seine

The Mildred

City of Cardiff

City of Cardiff

The Dutch cargo ship Voorspoed

The Cromdale

November 2, 1875- Steam AKSAI , Russian flag, sailed straight to White Island in St. Martin due to the fog, while going to Odessa loaded with Cardiff coal. The captain and his crew of 39 men were saved by the ship Lady of the Isles. Citation: Larn, Richard (1992). Shipwrecks of the Isles of Scilly. Nairn: Thomas & Lochar

James Gibson at work