The Menai
Strait is the captivating submerged valley that separates Anglesey from
mainland North Wales. It is orientated
north east to south west, and stretches for approximately 15 miles from Trwyn
Penmon to Abermenai Point.
The present day channel is a result of glacial erosion of
the bedrock along a line of weakness associated with the Menai Strait Fault
System. During the series of Pleistocene glaciations a succession of ice-sheets
moved from northeast to southwest across Anglesey and neighbouring Arfon
scouring the underlying rock, the grain of which also runs in this direction.
The result was a series of linear bedrock hollows across the region, the
deepest of which was flooded by the sea as world ocean levels rose at the end
of the last ice age.
According to Heimskringla, the 11th century
Norse-Gael ruler Echmarcach mac Ragnaill plundered in Wales with his friend,
the Viking Guttorm Gunnhildsson. However they started quarreling over the
plunder and fought a battle at the Menai Strait. Guttorm won the battle by
praying to Saint Olaf and Echmarcach was killed.
It is a very important waterway since
ancient times boats, ships and fishing vessels were slipped through the narrow
banks of their way to various destinations. Inevitably Strait waters swallowed
and many ships were involved in accidents. Over the last two hundred years in
the Menai Strait have produced more than 1,000 such events. But, some of them
have a common denominator.
On December 5, 1664 a ship sank with all 81
passengers who were on board. Only one escaped. His name was Hugh Williams. The
information appears in the footer of 155 page of Cliffe’s
Book of North Wales. The book was published in 1851.
Another tragic incident occurred in 1785 on
the same date 5 December. Of the 60 people on board survived only ... Hugh
Williams. It could be just a coincidence. The evidence of this is all in the
book. There is more documentary
evidence for the 1785 sinking. Pages
281- 286 of Rev. William Bingley’s book “North Wales, including its scenery,
Antiquities and Customs” 1804, Vol. 1. describe Hugh Williams escape from the shipwreck
on December 5, 1785.
Again on May
20th, 1842, a boat was crossing the Menai, near the spot where the above
catastrophes happened, when she upset with 15 passengers and all perished save one; but in this
instance the name of the survivor was Richard Thomas.
On 10th July
1940, a British trawler was destroyed by a German mine – only two men survived,
one man and his nephew – they were both called Hugh Williams.
Considering the natural inclination of
people to the side mysterious things might believe that the appearance of that
name in several disasters marine products in one place and with only one single
survivor, is more than a coincidence and that phenomena or entities that the
human mind can not fully understand, and have contributed to the production of
a certain kind of events.
Exaggerations went up to consider this
combination of information as "the strangest coincidence ever
recorded." Amateur sensational or not life teaches us all that in
situations of this kind must let reason to find explanations most logical and
weighted impulses of passion which pushes us to believe that any matter that we
do not understand is something supernatural .
One thing is
obvious from the story of Hugh and his Uncle Hugh – Hugh Williams is not an
uncommon name in Wales. Apparently the
Anglicization of Welsh names had an impact.
From Welsh Names : ...by the 15th century the range of names in use was
affected by the great popularity of a limited number of names such as John,
William and Thomas, which had also been adopted in England by that time. Also, fixed surnames were adopted gradually
in Wales, so the son of William often took his father’s first name as his last,
which is how popular first names became common surnames. Indeed, Coghlan’s account of the three
shipwrecks ends with the comment: “This extraordinary coincidence can only be
explained by the circumstance that the name of Hugh Williams is very common in
these parts.”
Another point
which emerges in the longer version of the story which includes the survivor,
Richard Thomas, is that the Menai Strait is a particularly nasty body of water
with strong currents and rough seas. When listening to the shorter version of
the story one might think that only three boats sank in the Menai Strait over
two hundred years. The number is probably closer to three hundred. The number
of deaths by drowning is probably in the thousands.
The name Hugh
Williams is fairly common and the waters off North Wales are treacherous. Over a period of almost two hundred years is
not that unlikely that there would be three sole survivors of shipwrecks who
had the same name. Two on the same day of the month is less likely, though over
more than 100 years, maybe not that improbable either.
I hope I managed to convince you that it is
not an immortal Hugh Williams who managed to escape from many shipwrecks over
two hundred years. Or maybe not ………
photo credit: google.com
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HAVE A NICE DAY !
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