(From Bristol)
The talk to be given this week by A.K. Hamilton Jenkin deals with a subject on which Cornishmen are occasionally sensitive. However, the charges that have been levelled against them of luring ships in for the sake of plunder have been generally disproved by Mr. Jenkin himself in one of his books, 'Cornish Seafarers'.
At the same time, as he has shown, a wreck with its promise of food and wine was looked upon in the bad old days of desperate poverty as a veritable gift from the gods. On the merest chance of a wreck occurring, the miners would leave their work and, in companies 'often two thousand strong', follow the vessel for miles along the coast. That under such circumstances the half-starved population sometimes showed less concern for the sailors than for looting the cargo, is more than probable.
But one must remember that their ill-deeds were performed in the white heat of excitement produced by the atmosphere of a wreck and not as the result of cold-blooded scheming to deprive others of their lives and property.
