The eye of the Needle

15 minutes from my door this rock stack stands just off the coast. Cliffs and stack are coming alive now with sea birds claiming their nest sites, jostling for position, calling and wheeling as they skim the air currents. Some of them are visible (especially in large as white dots on the rock ledges, or black if they're cormorants.

Today was calm and sunny for the first time for ages and it was an opportunity to get a good view of Needle Rock. It's not the easiest place to approach as the cliff top slopes sharply seaward and is covered with bracken and brambles but at this time of the year the vegetation is at its lowest.

It used to be a favourite exploit for local youngsters to row through the eye of Needle Rock but I've never seen anyone do it. The days when messing about on the water was a popular youthful pastime have long gone although fishermen still drop lobster pots around here in the summer. In rough weather you wouldn't want to get too close. It was in December 1920 that the Needle hit the headlines when the three-masted Dutch schooner Hermina ran aground here in mountainous seas and the Fishguard lifeboat accomplished a magnificent rescue at great risk to its own safety. During the rescue the lifeboat's engine was flooded, leaving its crew with no other means of propulsion than oars, jib and mizzen sail, which was ripped to shreds by the wind. In all it took the lifeboat three hours to return the two miles to harbour with 9 rescued sailors. Three members of the Hermina's crew, the captain, chief officer and third mate, remained on board. The captain and his chief officer were later rescued by the cliff rescue team but the third mate was swept away and drowned. The lifeboat crew got medals and so did the man who was lowered down the cliff: his name was Willie Morgan and he lived in the farm just behind. Parts of the wreck can still be seen here at low tide but I think it's only the seals and the sea birds that get to view them.