THE GROSVENOR AND THE PEACOCK THRONE

Port Grosvenor, Pondoland, commemorates the sea disaster of August 4^th 1782 when the 729–ton Grosvenor, belonging to the East India Company ran aground here. She left Trincomalee in Ceylon on June 13^th for Portsmouth. The passengers included about a hundred and fifty businessmen, colonial office representatives, 3 women and 6 children.  The Grosvenor had already crossed the Indian Ocean when she ran into a storm. According to Captain Coxon’s calculations, the ship must have been more than a hundred miles from land. It was realized too late that she was much closer to the shore than calculations had indicated. The officer of the watch refused to believe the lookouts when they told him they could see breakers ahead. The only charts on board were old and inaccurate. One of the look-outs also informed Captain John Coxton of the danger, and he at once ordered the helmsman to alter course – but it was too late, the ship had crashed between the reefs only thirty yards from the rocky shores of a deep bay known as Lwambazi. Though the masts had been swept overboard, she started taking in vast quantities of water. The passengers stood huddled together on the high poop. Some had been washed overboard in the heavy seas. Two Italians managed to swim ashore and tie a rope round a spur of rocks. By clinging to it several people reached the shore, but some, their strength failing, fell into the sea and were drowned. Soon after this the ship broke in two. The women and children were loaded on a hastily constructed raft and were deposited safely on shore. A huge crowd of Pondos had by this time gathered on the shore to witness the event. The next day was spent collecting whatever useful flotsam could be found. The Pondos carried away what they liked. The survivors realized that they would have to walk to the Cape.  The captain had estimated that it would take 15 days to reach the nearest Dutch settlement. What he had not allowed for in his calculations were the many rivers which lay in their path. Four days after the Grosvenor was wrecked, the survivors set off. From the very first day they were menaced by aggressive, bloodthirsty natives.  The natives, far superior in number seized all their belongings and slipped away. The sailors started complaining about the delays caused by traveling with the indisposed.  At last the captain decided that the women, children and wounded, should remain behind. Only 17 of the survivors managed to reach the Cape. A search party was sent out from the Cape who took the same route as the survivors. They found some human skeletons but no survivors. Little remains of Port Grosvenor today but the name.

Cargo of the Grosvenor

Her bills of landing showed that the vessel carried a cargo of bullion – jewels, coins, plate, ivory and many other precious goods. There were also rumors that the ship carried a king’s ransom in loot being taken to Britain by adventurers said to have been concerned with the disappearance of the celebrated peacock throne of Persia. The throne, said to be worth £6000 000 disappeared without a trace since the sailing ship had begun its voyage in 1782, and according to reliable information had been on board.

 Peacock Throne of the Grand Mogul

This famous couch was supported by tall golden legs encrusted with thousands of precious stones of exceptional size and beauty. It included emeralds, pearls, rubies and sapphires. The back of the throne was composed of pure gold with fanned tails, the feathers made up entirely of gleaming jewels, pearls and diamonds.

Twelve pillars supported the baldachin, whose gold ground was barely visible beneath the thick incrustation of precious stones.

Salvage

Many attempts have been made to salvage the cargo of the Grosvenor. As early as 1842 the British Admiralty evolved a plan to recover the treasure with the aid of Malayan deep-sea divers. The Grosvenor was located easily as it was trapped between two reefs on hard rock and could not be moved by the tide. With the primitive methods of the skin divers it was not possible to get to the ships cargo and all efforts abandoned. In 1905 the international Grosvernor Recovery Syndicate began with salvage operations. She was found quite by chance still lying where she had gone down. Broken plate of Chinese origin and 250 gold coins were discovered. These included some Venetian ducats and gold star-pagodas. The Syndicate gave up the work after a diver was killed. One company planned to build a great dyke around the bay, pump out the water and salvage the treasure. Two dyke's were built and destroyed by heavy seas. Another company attempted to reach the wreck by digging a tunnel underneath the bed of the sea. It ran level for some hundred yards, sloped down underneath the wreck, and then came up again. Cranes, divers, cables scraping the bed of the sea – all have been used.

At Lwambazi and all along the wild coast there is always a change of finding coins, beads and shards of pottery. On the lonely shore rusty machinery and relics of salvage companies are the only evidence of a once desire to solve a historical mystery.