Loss
In March 1907, Jebba was steaming from Calabar, Lagos, Gold Coast and Gran Canaria to Plymouth and Liverpool. She was carrying 79 passengers, many of whom were British troops being invalided home from being stationed in West Africa.[6] She was also carrying mail, and a cargo that included rubber, palm oil, palm kernels, coffee, cocoa, fruit, and at least a small amount of ivory. In fog on the night of 18 March her crew overshot the Eddystone Lighthouse, and she struck rocks under the cliffs at Bolt Tail.
Jebba was the second liner to run aground in that part of the English Channel that night. A few hours earlier, the White Star Liner SS Suevic had run aground on Stag Rock, off Lizard Point, Cornwall, about 54 nmi west of where Jebba had hit Bolt Tail.[7]
Jebba's Master, Captain JJC Mills, RNR, ordered distress flares to be fired, and had the ship's furnaces extinguished to prevent a boiler explosion. The Hope Cove Life Boat soon reached Jebba, which was broadside on to the rocks at the foot of the cliff. But there was no room for the lifeboat to reach Jebba's leeward side, and it was unsafe to effect a rescue from her windward side.[5]
Two local men, Isaac Jarvis and John Argeat (some sources say Argeant, others Argent), climbed down the 200 ft cliffs. Accounts differ as to whether members of Jebba's crew fired a line ashore by means of a rocket,[5] or Jarvis and Argeat threw a line to the ship, weighted with a rock on the end. Either way, a line was secured between ship and shore, and either a bosun's chair[5] or a breeches buoy was attached to the line (again, accounts differ). By this means all 79 passengers and 76 crew were then safely winched ashore, one at a time. Once ashore, all 155 survivors were then helped to reach the top of the cliffs. Two HM Coastguard men and an HM Customs man worked with Jarvis and Argeat in the rescue.[8] Also safely brought ashore were a chimpanzee, three monkeys, and numerous parrots.[5]
Jebba flooded soon after the rescue, but most of her mail and cargo was eventually salvaged, and so were such valuable components as could be safely removed. The General Post Office stamped the words in purple ink on each surviving item, before forwarding it to its addressee. These envelopes are now valued philatelic collector's items.[9][10][11]
At Edward VII's personal behest, the Board of Trade awarded its Bronze Medal to five men: Jarvis and Argeat, plus HM Coastguard men Edwin Purslow and Robin Hayter, and HM Customs officer William Day.[8] The Liverpool Shipwreck and Humane Society awarded Jarvis and Argeat its Silver Marine Medal. On 7 May 1907 a Board of Trade inquiry found Captain Mills at fault for the loss of his ship, and suspended his Master's certificate for six months.[5]
