17 PZ: The Switch, The Twist, Joseph Trewavas & The Victoria Cross…
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| 17 PZ, JOSEPH TREWAVAS' 'AGEMEMNON' (NOTE THE SPELLING) IS ON THE RIGHT... |
His boat was the ‘Agememnon’,
A lugger out of Mounts Bay
And named after the ship
Upon which he had served
During the Crimean War;
For there, during an offensive affray
He was awarded for his bravery,
The Victoria Cross and totally deserved…
17 PZ was the reversal
From PZ 17
And Joseph Trewavas was the twist
Of fate unforeseen…
Pete Ray
3rd May 2020
After buying the small model of PZ 17 at a shop in Marazion and subsequently featuring it on my blog, I came across the image of 17 PZ, a lugger which belonged to Mousehole’s Joseph Trewavas, who won a VC for his exploits in the Crimean War…
I was amazed, having already written about the adventure which won him the award…
Joseph Trewavas:
Mousehole's Navy V.C.
A Mousehole lad, educated in Paul,
Joseph Trewavas’ life panned out to enthral.
The sea had beckoned,
The Navy, he reckoned
Would be his vocation,
And his first embarkation
Aboard ‘Agamemnon’, a steamship heavily armed,
Took him to the Crimea, where his life would be charmed.
At Sebastopol and Inkerman with the Naval Brigade he fought;
Saw the diseased, the deceased, the damned and the distraught…
The Straits of Genitchi beckoned,
In the Sea of Azov, he reckoned:
This was his vocation,
On HMS Beagle, his embarkation,
For him to implement the imminent destruction
Of a supply-line, a pontoon, a Russian construction…
Densely defended, the floating bridge was heavily protected;
Three previous excursions had been successfully rejected.
The pontoon thus beckoned,
An axe, Joseph reckoned:
This was his vocation:
In a gig, his embarkation
Led to shock and caused incredulity for the Russian massed
defence,
As the craft was rowed forwards, the axe lifted and tense.
Joseph leapt from the gig and hacked at thick rope,
To sever the great hawsers, his forlorn, buoyant hope…
Broken cables beckoned,
One more swipe, he reckoned:
This was his vocation:
Would there be embarkation?
He scrambled aboard, Russian expressions agape,
A musket ball to the shoulder merely baulked his escape.
Excruciatingly embedded in flesh the missile became,
Bullets holed the gig, as it was rowed towards fame…
The Beagle’s safety beckoned,
Trewavas would live, he reckoned:
This had been his vocation,
A momentous embarkation…
The bridge was adrift, the Russians forestalled,
Joseph was victorious, his enemy appalled.
The Cornishman was honoured by the Queen, in Hyde Park:
A Victoria Cross medal, a measure, a mark…
An esteemed life beckoned,
Of fishing, he reckoned:
This would be his vocation,
Quaint Mousehole his embarkation…
A quiet married life, he expected,
‘Agamemnon’ his vessel, his fame respected.
A life, which spanned some sixty-nine years
Became affected by paralysis, frustration then tears…
Termination beckoned,
A cheese-knife, he reckoned:
An end to his vocation,
A final embarkation…
The blade slid mortally across an ageing, bloodstained neck
And he slipped away a day later, a hero, a sad ageing wreck…
Pete Ray
Joseph Trewavas is celebrated by a plaque upon an outside wall of the Mousehole house he had lived in.
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| THE PLAQUE IN MOUSEHOLE, CORNWALL... |
He was quite a hero.
On 3rd July 1855, the Russians were too surprised to fire at the small gig at first, containing only five men but they were too late to decide that the threat was serious.
The gig nearly capsized, Joseph’s shoulder injury wasn’t serious and he was eventually lauded, winning the Legion of Honour from France and the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal, as well as the Victoria Cross. He returned to the ‘Agamemnon’ in November, 1855.
He committed suicide in July 1905.
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