Walking from Najizal to Lands End we came across what looked like a camera tripod sticking out the water at Castle Zawn.
When we got back to Lands End I asked the car park attendant about this wreck and he told me the story of the Wrong Trouser Shipwreck
The RMS Mulheim was a large cargo ship which ran aground near Land’s End in spring 2003. The chief officer, who was on watch, caught his trousers on a lever on his chair as he stood up and fell, hitting his head and becoming unconscious. By the time he awoke, the ship was approaching the shoreline and was too close to be able to turn and it ran aground in Gamper Bay. The ship was carrying over 2000 tonnes of plastic scrap from cars. Most of the cargo was removed but some was lost in the ocean as the hull started to break up. Storms the following autumn finally broke the wreck in two and pushed the pieces into Castle Zawn. Some of the cargo washed up on Cornish beaches over the next year or so.
paulmurtphotography 