On This Day in Wembury – 23 April 1909
A case at Yealmpton Petty Sessions highlighted the problem of wreck plundering on Wembury Beach.
David Sanders, aged 36, a ship’s fireman, was charged with stealing a brass engine-room telegraph stand from a steamer wrecked in Wembury Bay. The item had been secured by John Grier, chief coastguard boatman, and placed at the top of the beach under the authority of the Receiver of Wrecks, Mr Horn. Within two days it had disappeared.
Police later searched Sanders’s lodging house in Plymouth and found the telegraph stand hidden under his bed. He admitted moving it from the low-water mark with the help of another man, though he refused to name his accomplice.
The bench fined him £5 plus £3 costs, with the alternative of one month’s imprisonment.
This case shows how wreck material washing ashore at Wembury Bay was treated as Crown property, to be secured by the coastguard and Receiver of Wrecks, and how attempts to pilfer such items could lead to prosecution.
Source: Western Morning News, 29 Apr 1909.
Entries are summaries and interpretations of historical newspaper reports.