On This Day in Wembury — 3 February 1885
The Terrible Affray on Board the Barque Wellington
On 3 February 1885, the inquest into the shocking death of Captain Charles Armstrong, master of the barque Wellington, was resumed at the Jubilee Inn in Wembury — the building now known as The Odd Wheel. The case drew widespread attention across the country, filling the small inn with locals eager to hear the evidence. “The room was crowded to excess by the farmers of the neighbourhood,” reported the Penny Illustrated Paper, as the county coroner and jury examined one of the most disturbing maritime incidents of the decade.
The Wellington had returned to Plymouth after a violent confrontation at sea. Captain Armstrong had been killed by members of his own crew under circumstances so grim that early rumours claimed he had been suffering from delirium tremens, the madness of drink. Yet the post-mortem at Plymouth told another story. “No trace whatever of drink was found in the stomach or the brain,” the report declared. “The organs were all found in a most healthy condition, inconsistent with the drink theory.”
Further accounts that circulated in maritime circles suggested the tragedy began when Armstrong, in a fit of anger or fear, fired a pistol and wounded one of his crew. The men, enraged or desperate, then turned on him. Whatever the precise sequence of events, the captain was dead before the ship reached port, and four sailors stood accused of killing him.
The inquest at Wembury became the local stage for a drama born far out on the Atlantic. Testimony was heard, the evidence reviewed, and finally the men were acquitted of manslaughter. The Wellington sailed again, but the memory of the captain who died by his own hand and crew lingered long after. For the people of Wembury, that winter’s day in 1885 was one when the distant violence of the sea briefly broke upon their own village green, inside a familiar inn that has since poured many quieter pints.
Source: Penny Illustrated Paper, 7 February 1885, “The Terrible Affray on Board Ship”; contemporary Devon inquest and court listings, 1885.