The day a giant oil tanker ran aground in Cornwall 90 years ago, threatening the lives of all on board

It was a story of daring rescue and courage when a fully loaded oil tanker ran aground in a beautiful spot in thick fog and every one of its crew and passengers, including a mother and her six-month-old baby, made it out alive.

The German tanker DL Harper, one of the largest of its kind in those days, had been en route to Hamburg from the Dutch West Indies when it struck the Crane Rocks at Caerthillion Cove on the Lizard Peninsula and ran aground.

Newspapers and black-and-white news bulletins of the day described how the ship, built in Hamburg in 1932, was almost abandoned to the waves with the crew still on board after coming in with a cropper in difficult weather conditions with visibility poor, thick fog and abundance. rain.

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When the 12,350-tonne ship hit the rocks on the evening of June 20, 1935, almost 90 years ago, the Lizard Class lifeboat Watson, RNLB Duke of York, swung into action after the alarm was raised by the lifeguard coast and by Lloyd’s Signal Station. .

Within minutes, the lifeboat was on the scene and managed to pull the five passengers, including a mother and her child, to safety, but was forced to leave the crew on board as the weather made conditions rescue too difficult and dangerous. As night fell, the lifeboat stood still through the night, and the next morning, when it was daylight, the lifeboat was able to take all 38 on board and bring them safely to the Polpeor shore.

A British Pathé newsreel from the day, titled “Oil Tanker Wrecked – The DL Harper Hits Rocks Off the Lizard”, shows the stricken tanker being covered by waves as onlookers watch from the safety of the rocks above.

The reader comments on the betrayal of the beautiful Cornish coast, adding: ‘Beautiful to the tourist eye, dreading shipping. In dense fog, the tanker DL Harper ran aground and was quickly locked by the Lizard. The crew and passengers were saved. but raging waves of the ocean crashing upon her motionless deck paint a grim picture of what might have been.”

As newspapers reported at the time, Captain DL Harper was grateful to the local RNLI crew, adding: “I cannot speak highly enough of your master and crew. They are a splendid crowd.”

The tanker was later refloated and towed by two tugs to Falmouth Harbor for repairs. Sold in 1953 as ‘Hanseat’ and in 1955 as ‘Transpaziek Hugo Stinnes’ and again in 1957 as ‘Aristed’, the DL Harper was finally scrapped in 1960.