S. S. Jebba - a short history 1896-1907

In the early hours of 18 March 1907, a 302 foot steam-ship collided with the south Devon coast, precipitating a famous rescue and providing divers with a glorious wreck.

Jebba – originally called Albertville until her name was changed by new owners Elder Dempster – was built in 1896 by Sir Robert Dixon & Co. At 302 feet long and weighing 3813 gross tons, she was on her way home from Sierra Leone when, having missed the Eddystone Lighthouse in fog, she ran aground in darkness under the steep cliffs of Hope Cove’s Bolt Tail, west of Salcombe. She was carrying 155 passengers and crew, the Royal Mail and a cargo of rubber, fresh fruit and ivory worth £200,000.

Ships flairs were sent up and these were almost immediately answered by the Hope Cove lifeboat which tried in vain to manoeuvre into the comparatively calm water between Jebba and the shore. It soon became clear that the sea was too dangerous for anyone to be taken off that way but, despite this, the passengers remained remarkably calm.

Meanwhile, alerted by the flares, two local fishermen – Isaac Jarvis and John Argeat – had descended the 200-foot cliffs in darkness – an extraordinary feat – and successfully set up a bosun’s chair with which they began to rescue the 117 people. For this act of extraordinary bravery they were presented with the Albert Medal by Edward VII. Coincidentally, two of their great grandfathers had helped to rescue some of the tragically few survivors of the Ramillies which had been wrecked on the same spot almost 150 years earlier.

Amongst those rescued were a cat, two chimpanzees and three small monkeys. Brightly coloured pet parrots suddenly appeared in many of the homes in and around Hope Cove and bananas and pineapples became common items on local menus. Nearly 100 mail bags were also recovered and processed at Plymouth the next day.

Today Jebba lies in 30 feet of water exactly where she sank, with all kinds of wreckage, broken pottery, ships boilers, brass and her rudder complete. In 1971 a diver found a whole dinner plate with her original name Albertville on it.

© Copyright of Lifechart 2007