THE BOAT TRAGEDY HISTORY FORGOT

Fifty years ago 15 people, including four children, were killed

AT 10.55am on July 22, 1966, 39 pleasure trippers looking forward to a day out left Barmouth on a five shilling boat ride.

But the day turned into disaster when the Prince of Wales sank and 15 people, including four children, died.

The tragedy unfurled at 11.45am as the ferry, carrying six more people than was allowed, neared the end of its eight-mile trip to Penmaenpool’s George III hotel on the first day of the school holidays.

As skipper Edward Llewellyn Jones tried to manoeuvre his vessel to the hotel jetty it was dashed against a wooden toll bridge at Penmaenpool and went under. Men, women and children were thrown into the fast-flowing water. Others were reported to have gone down in the boat.

As other vessels and RAF helicopters joined the rescue one eyewitness dubbed the scene “a miniature Dunkirk.”

The tiny slate-walled Dolgellau hospital was put on full alert. On and off-duty doctors and nurses were called in.

On the day, 26 people were taken there. Most suffered shock and minor injuries.

By the time the South Wales Echo’s Late City edition went to press it was known that four were dead and eight were missing.

Onlookers told the paper the craft sank quickly after its bow was stoved in.

Toll bridge keeper Lewis Idrisyn Roberts rushed from his office when he heard the impact. He called police and started helping.

He said at the time: “It was utter chaos. The passengers not flung into the water immediately remained calm after the collision but they were thrown into the water as the vessel went under.”

He and John Hall, landlord of the George III hotel, launched a boat to pick up survivors.

Mr Hall and his 20-year-old assistant chef David Jones and barman Bob Jones rowed out in 10ft dinghy The Daisy May – which he had only had for five days.

They took them back to the hotel, where they were given brandy, coffee and first aid.

“Other rescuers were dragging in people from the river all along the shoreline,” Mr Roberts said. In 2006 Bob Jones, then 72, told the BBC he was still haunted by the sight of a young girl being washed away by the strong incoming tide 30 yards from him.

He recalled hearing a bang coming from the direction of the bridge when the boat hit it.

“I turned around and looked and the boat was sinking, people screaming and shouting,” Mr Jones said.

“I waded in and managed to get two young lads out.

“I bought them ashore and, as I turned to get them safe, I could see this young girl on the far bank.

“Unfortunately, there was nothing I could do.”

He remembered a woman desperately holding onto the toll bridge supports. She would not let go as rescuers tried to help.

Flight sergeant Hannaby manned a helicopter from RAF Valley. He told the Echo they picked up four people from the water.

Two of them, women, were dead. The other two, a man and a woman, were alive. Mr Roberts said the fast-flowing tide must have driven the boat on to the bridge supports.

“The bows of the craft were crushed by the force of the collision and water was rushing in below decks,” he said.

An unnamed staff member from the George Hotel said: “It all happened in a split second.

“The boat went up to the bridge to turn around and must have hit a pillar.”

The water was filled with desperate people.

“The survivors were brought to the hotel then everyone was taken to Dolgellau Hospital, where a roll call was held,” the worker said.

Skipper Edward Jones helped search for survivors after his rescue.

The day after the accident, Saturday, July 23, 1966, an inquest was opened.

As evidence of the dead was given in a Dolgellau county courtroom, women wept. Eleven were known to be dead at this point.

Merioneth Coroner – named only as Mr H Evans-Jones in the Echo – expressed his sympathies to the room.

“When people are on holiday and this type of thing happens the shock is very great,” he said.

“Great for the people involved and even great-