Black Fox Down

One of the items in Ein Hanes, our local history centre, is a pair of  small, sealed metal boxes. Alongside them is a handwritten account of how they came to be here. 
On an unspecified date, two local fisherman spotted a 53 foot sailing ship in trouble off the rocky promontory of Strumble  Head and went to her aid. It was the Black Fox en route from Poole to Liverpool. She had been a superannuated vessel  grounded on mud flats when her new skipper, a pianist called Pat Niven, purchased  her and decided to sail her around the coast.  He may have  renamed her. Built in 1903, she had had two previous incarnations, first as a Dutch pilot boat and then as a smuggling vessel  running contrabrand in the Med. In the event, either she wasn't sound enough for the voyage, or her single-handed captain was not experienced enough to meet the challenge of the Pembrokeshire coast  

John Jenkins and Willie Reynolds reached the stricken ship in their 16 foot boat the Danny Mary, attached a line and started to tow her in before the local lifeboat took over.  What became of her captain is not recorded but things went from bad to worse for the Black Fox. She broke loose from the harbour buoy she was tied up to,  filled with water and  ended up a total wreck moored to the quay in Lower Town where she was eventually broken up.

 All that remains of the Black Fox now are these emergency rations, made by the Dutch confectionery firm Koninklijke Verkade    - which suggests they must date from her early years  as a pilot boat. The boxes are stamped  with instructions for opening in 4 languages: Dutch, English, French and German. I'm astounded that no one has succumbed to the temptation to peel back ("no tin opener needed") the metal covering to see what's inside - there must surely be chocolate!  But how old? Could it still be edible? I don't think we'll ever know.