In memory of Robert Thomas

Photo of Captain Robert ThomasCaptain Robert Thomas was born at 6 Corporation Terrace, Criccieth, in 1879, writes Robert Dafydd Cadwalader. His father, grandfather were both also called Robert Thomas and also died at sea.

He went away to sea as an apprentice on the deep-sea sailing ships managed by yet another Robert Thomas (this time no relation) of Cardigan House, Criccieth. In 1904 at the age of 25 he was given command of the barque Eifion. This ship, with a cargo of coal, was lost by fire in the Pacific, but all the crew were saved by a passing vessel, called Londsdale.  

Robert was master of the full-rigged sailing ship Criccieth Castle which foundered off Cape Horn in 1912. With him were his wife Catherine, who was expecting a baby, and his four-year-old son. They and other survivors spent eight harrowing days in the ship’s open lifeboat before reaching safety in the Falkland Islands. On returning to Wales, Catherine gave birth to a baby girl who was named Mercy Malvina Thomas.

Painting of Criccieth CastleRobert Thomas suffered ill-health after this experience and stayed ashore in Llangybi, near Criccieth (his wife’s home village). At the outbreak of war in 1914 he joined the Royal Naval Reserve. In July 1917 the ship he commanded, HMS Kelvin, hit a mine whilst on patrol in the North Sea. He did not survive his third shipwreck, and was buried outside Capel Helyg in Llangybi.

His son Robert, who had survived the Criccieth Castle ordeal, drowned while onboard ship in the 1930s, and so men of four generations of the same family were lost to the sea.

The full story of the 1912 sinking is told in the book "The Loss of the Criccieth Castle” by Cathy Woodhead (Delfryn Publications )

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