MV Darlwyne was a pleasure cruiser, a converted Royal Navy picket boat, that disappeared off the Cornish coast on 31 July 1966 with its complement of thirty-one (two crew and twenty-nine passengers, including eight children). Twelve bodies and a few artefacts were later recovered, but the rest of the victims and the main body of the wreck were never found.
Built in 1941, after ending its naval service in 1957, Darlwyne was used as a private cabin cruiser, first on the River Thames and later in Cornwall, where it became a commercial passenger boat, despite being unlicensed for such work. It underwent considerable structural modifications, including the removal of its original watertight bulkheads and the conversion of its aft cabin into a large open cockpit. These changes adversely affected its seaworthiness. Surveyors' reports in 1964 and 1966 indicated that Darlwyne was unfit for the open sea; furthermore, it carried no radio or distress flares, and its lifesaving aids were rudimentary.
By 1966, Darlwyne was in the ownership of John Barratt of Penryn in Cornwall. The fatal voyage was arranged when the boat's skipper, Brian Bown, agreed to take a group of guests from the Greatwood guest house in Mylor on a sea trip to Fowey. On the morning of 31 July, the outward voyage was completed without mishap, but the weather subsequently deteriorated. Bown disregarded advice to remain in Fowey harbour, and shortly after 4:00 pm began the return trip to Mylor. An unconfirmed sighting at around 6:00 pm placed the boat, in worsening conditions, in the vicinity of Dodman Point, a prominent coastal feature. Following its failure to arrive at Mylor the alarm was raised early on 1 August, and full air and sea searches began at dawn. After the recovery of 12 bodies, searches continued intermittently for several months, without finding traces of the vessel.
A Board of Trade enquiry into Darlwynes loss placed the main blame on Barratt and Bown for allowing the vessel to go to sea in an unsafe and unprepared condition. Bown was lost in the disaster; Barratt was censured and ordered to contribute £500 to the cost of the enquiry. The Board's report exposed the laxity with which boat licensing regulations were being administered, and led to stiffer penalties for non-compliance, but there were no immediate regulatory changes, and no criminal proceedings were recommended. In April 1967 a memorial screen, listing the names of the 31 dead, was dedicated in Mylor church at a special service led by the Bishop of Truro. In 2016, on the 50th anniversary of the sinking, divers found an anchor and other debris at a location close to Dodman Point, which they stated were in all probability Darlwyne relics.
Vessel history
Construction
Picket boat no. 41768, the future Darlwyne, was built for the Royal Navy in 1941 in the Sussex Yacht Works yard at Shoreham-by-Sea. The hull, carvel built from African mahogany and rock elm, was long, approximately wide, with a draught at the stern of . Bulkheads divided the hull into fully watertight compartments, each equipped with a bilge pump. The vessel's original engine power was provided by twin Gardner 6LW diesel engines, each developing 95 horsepower. It was built to operate in harbours and estuaries, mainly in transferring personnel between ship and shore, rather than for the open sea.
1941–1964
The vessel remained with the Royal Navy until 1957, when it was sold to the Belsize Boatyard in Southampton. Here, it was converted to a cabin cruiser, during which most of the original bulkheads were removed; the replacements were not watertight. In September 1959 the boatyard sold the boat to joint owners Messrs Lowe and Gray, who replaced the engines with less powerful twin Perkins P6 units each generating 65 hp. They then moved the boat to Teddington on the River Thames, where on 22 April 1960 it was registered as a river cruiser under the name Darlwyne. At this time its gross register tonnage was recorded as 12.35.