The Voyage

The journey began on 24th September 1917 when the ship left Appledore, Devon, to collect a cargo of coal from Swansea which was destined for the French port of St. Brieuc on the NW coast. Two days before, two of the five crew had left the vessel to be replaced by two new additions recruited locally. Those now aboard were as follows:

1. Master: Archibald John Martin (33) from Kent. He had been sailing coastal craft from a young age. His previous craft included Vivid in 1902, Utopia in 1903, and he was Master of Huntleys in 1913. He was still aboard her earlier, in 1917, when she was sunk off Beachy Head on 25th March, after having been taken by UC 69 and scuttled. All the crew were saved.

2. Mate: George Steward of Brightlingsea (69). Among his previous craft were Sly Boots and Alexandra, and no doubt many others in his long career at sea.

3. W.H. Beck of London (26). No other details are available but, as he was shown as Able Seaman (AB) in the log, he must have been experienced in sail.

4. William Ferdinand Douglas Bourke (17). Again, he was shown as AB so although the youngest aboard, he had relevant experience.

5. Martin Faus (31) was newly joined and an AB from Russia.

All in all it was quite an experienced group, although the Master was new to the ship after his previous sinking and two others were freshly joined, one possibly with little English. Zebrina was rare amongst three masted brigantines, in being barge built with a flat bottomed square section hull without leeboards to assist windward sailing. She had something of a reputation for being a slow sailor to windward but faster downwind. She had recently changed ownership, now being operated by John K. Morris, 11 Drury Lane, Liverpool.

At Swansea some 300 tons of coal were loaded, leaving her with less than 2ft of freeboard so that her leeward deck would often be awash under sail. Zebrina departed on 30th September but her voyage was interrupted when she put into Falmouth, probably because of bad weather sometime in early October.. She set sail again on 12th October, only to return the next day as the wind had risen once more. She finally departed on the 15th with a 2-3 force SW breeze, ideal for her to make for the French coast (see map). Thunderstorms were noted that night in Jersey and by morning on 16th October, a squally gale force wind with rain was blowing hard.

The route would have been planned so that the coast should be visible soon after dawn, and at this point the ship would need to change course to a more southerly direction to close the shore. The master may already have ordered a reduction in sail area, possibly by furling the square sails on the foremast, and in these conditions all the crew would have been involved somewhere on deck. It was 24 hours into the voyage, deck and ropes were soaked and slippery and waves of 8 to 12 feet high would be breaking across the length of the vessel. Added to this, the angle of heel would increase as she came closer to the wind making steering more difficult, plus the roaring of the wind and crash of the sea would hinder communication. For a crew where some were relatively unfamiliar with the craft, such conditions would be a real challenge and it is entirely possible that a sudden unexpected wave could sweep all off their feet and send them overboard scrabbling for purchase.

Zebrina would now be out of control and might well make an erratic course until brought up by running ashore. The best assumption is probably that the route would be generally downwind, and this I have shown as a dotted line on the map. A complication is that this was a spring tide, so there were strong currents and big ranges which I have not attempted to include. This is of course only conjecture, but it is curious that if she followed this course then she missed both rocky shores of Jersey and Guernsey and also eventually found a relatively safe grounding!

She was discovered on the morning of 17th October with some sails still set and the ship's boat still aboard, but no sign of the crew. Some of her cargo was removed to aid refloating and she was towed to Cherbourg for repairs and return to the owners.

At the time, there was speculation that a U-boat might have been involved, as they often allowed the crew of small vessels to escape in the ship's boat before a sinking. The names of the crew in this case were recorded as due to enemy action. However, no records at the time or subsequently support this theory and, because of the gale, little submarine activity was possible. Also, the ship's boat was still aboard when she ran ashore.

Much of the basic information for the account below was obtained from When Ships Go Down by David Masters, published in 1932 and long out of print. He researched the events in great detail and, to my mind, his conclusions represent the best explanation for what occurred.

Genealogical research was extensive and time consuming, for which I thank Sharman Bastin.

The Legend.

Mysteries at Sea have always been popular reading, especially when they result in ships being found either afloat or abandoned without their crew. This one is no exception and the story has been retold many times. Sometimes other details have been included with doubtful provenance. In some recent versions, Zebrina is referred to as a "ghost ship" prowling the ocean, although she spent probably only a few hours drifting to the shore. Thus the Zebrina legend has grown, and perhaps the story has more attraction if it remains unexplained.

The ship's later History

Zebrina was repaired and a 50hp auxiliary engine installed in 1918. She continued to ply the coastal and channel waters under a series of eleven different owners and crews. By WW2, she was being used for storage (as a hulk) in Plymouth. In the 1940s she was a houseboat (with masts removed) at Milton Quay in Langstone harbour, with the hold used for boatbuilding. In 1953 the hull was burnt out in Velder Creek in Langstone, and what is left of her timbers is now buried under a housing estate on land reclaimed from the Harbour.

For postcards of the Zebrina in earlier days, see the entries in Sailing Vessels and Postcard of the Month for April 2023 in the Community Blog.