Royal Navy ‘ghost ship’ with no crew washes up on Cornish beach

The arrival of an 80-tonne ‘ghost ship’ that run aground on a Cornish beach after breaking free from its moorings was the centre of a week-long mystery for locals.

With no crew on board, locals had been puzzled how the ship actually reached the beach or where it had come from in the first place.

It was only when officials in Padstow came to retrieve the ship a week later that they discovered the name of the ship, where it came from and how it got there.

Former Royal Navy vessel The Appleby, that is used for training, is usually tied up in Padstow, North Cornwall, but it somehow managed to come loose and drift across the River Camel before getting beached between Rock and Daymer Bay.

Richard Bond from Coastees Hand-drawn Cornish Coastal Clothing flocked to the area to take pictures of the mystery vessel.

He said: “I heard about it being down there so I went down just to have a look and take some photographs, it was quite impressive to see up close.

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“It’s been tied up at Padstow for quite a while; I don’t think it is really used anymore, it’s a bit of a wreck really.

“It just came off its mooring, it floated out down the river from Padstow, luckily it ran aground on the sand otherwise it could have got wrecked on the rocks.

“No one was on the boat, and it doesn’t work, so it was just floating off.”

The boat has now been recovered from the shore and taken back to Padstow.

Richard added: “After it ran aground, they waited for the high tide to refloat it and then towed it back to Padstow.

“I am part of the Coastguards as well so I have seen similar things before. There was a French trawler that we got called out to that was wrecked in 2014.”

The Appleby was built in 1965 and specifically used for training sea cadets in the Royal Navy.

It was constructed by Pimblott & Sons in Northwich, a building company that closed its shipyard in 1971.

Top pic: SWNS