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59-574: The Doom Bar (previously known as Dunbar sands , Dune-bar , and similar names) is a sandbar at the mouth of the estuary of the River Camel , where it meets the Atlantic Ocean on the north coast of Cornwall , England . Like two other permanent sandbanks further up the estuary, the Doom Bar is composed mainly of marine sand that is continually being carried up from the seabed. More than 60 per cent of

118-445: A beach , the term shoal can be applied to larger geological units that form off a coastline as part of the process of coastal erosion, such as spits and baymouth bars that form across the front of embayments and rias . A tombolo is a bar that forms an isthmus between an island or offshore rock and a mainland shore. In places of reentrance along a coastline (such as inlets , coves , rias, and bays), sediments carried by

177-401: A crossbow , or a greedy man shoots her with a longbow . Mermaids were believed to sing to their victims so that they could lure adulterers to their deaths. The mermaid legend extends beyond the creation of the Doom Bar. In 1939 Samuel Williamson declared there are mermaids comparable to Sirens who lie in the shallow waters and draw in ships to be wrecked. In addition, "the distressful cry of

236-433: A longshore current will fall out where the current dissipates, forming a spit. An area of water isolated behind a large bar is called a lagoon. Over time, lagoons may silt up, becoming salt marshes . In some cases, shoals may be precursors to beach expansion and dunes formation, providing a source of windblown sediment to augment such beach or dunes landforms. Since prehistoric times, humans have chosen some shoals as

295-475: A shoal is a natural submerged ridge , bank , or bar that consists of, or is covered by, sand or other unconsolidated material, and rises from the bed of a body of water close to the surface or above it, which poses a danger to navigation. Shoals are also known as sandbanks , sandbars , or gravelbars . Two or more shoals that are either separated by shared troughs or interconnected by past or present sedimentary and hydrographic processes are referred to as

354-400: A shoal complex . The term shoal is also used in a number of ways that can be either similar to, or quite different from, how it is used in geologic, geomorphic, and oceanographic literature. Sometimes, the term refers to either any relatively shallow place in a stream , lake , sea , or other body of water; a rocky area on the seafloor within an area mapped for navigation purposes; or,

413-480: A beach, they slow down, their wave height increases and the distance between waves decreases. This behavior is called shoaling , and the waves are said to shoal. The waves may or may not build to the point where they break , depending on how large they were to begin with, and how steep the slope of the beach is. In particular, waves shoal as they pass over submerged sandbanks or reefs. This can be treacherous for boats and ships. Shoaling can also refract waves, so

472-476: A boat was foundering, salvors would step in and help. There were cases where salvors attempted to overstate the danger in court, so as to extort more money from the owners. This happened to the brig The Towan in October 1843. Although it did not need assistance, salvors interfered and attempted to claim a large amount in compensation from the owner. In 1827, the recently founded Life-boat Institution helped fund

531-575: A craft go down. They rowed out to save the drowning sailor . As it was very unusual for women to rescue men all five girls received a Royal National Lifeboat Institution Silver Medal for their bravery. Despite the safer eastern channel and improvements in maritime technology, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution still deals with incidents at the Doom Bar. In February 1997, two fishermen who were not wearing lifejackets drowned after their boat capsized. Two anglers had been killed in

590-625: A disappearing submerged forest off of the coast of Cheshire and Lancashire . As the North American Laurentide Ice Sheet began receding for the last time some 10,000 years ago, water levels in the future Great Lakes were sometimes much lower than at present. Forests once covered the southern end of what is now Lake Huron but as the glaciers melted and waters rose these forests were inundated and drowned. Today their remnants, well preserved logs and stumps, have been discovered in waters over 200 feet deep. A submerged forest

649-488: A dying curse on the harbour after she was shot by a local man. The Doom Bar has been used in poetry to symbolise feelings of melancholy, and has given its name to the flagship ale from the local Sharp's Brewery. The Doom Bar is a sandbar at the mouth of the Camel estuary on the north coast of Cornwall. The bar is composed mostly of coarse sediment carried up from the seabed by bed load processes, and it has been shown that there

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708-455: A fifth and a quarter of the sand used for agriculture in Devon and Cornwall. He also stated that around 80 men were permanently employed to dredge the area from several barges, removing an estimated 100,000 long tons (100,000,000 kg) of sand per year, which he said he had been "assured by competent persons" had caused a reduction in height of the bar of between 6 and 8 feet (180 and 240 cm) in

767-410: A growth of vegetation on the bottom of a deep lake, that occurs at any depth, or is used as a verb for the process of proceeding from a greater to a lesser depth of water. Shoals are characteristically long and narrow (linear) ridges. They can develop where a stream , river , or ocean current promotes deposition of sediment and granular material , resulting in localized shallowing (shoaling) of

826-528: A permanent lifeboat at Padstow, a 23 feet (7.0 m) rowing boat with four oars. The lifeboat house at Hawker's Cove was erected two years later by the Padstow Harbour Association for the Preservation of Life and Property from Shipwreck. Reverend Charles Prideaux-Brune of Prideaux Place was the patron. In 1879, four of his granddaughters and their friend were rowing on the Doom Bar and saw

885-627: A similar incident in 1994. On 25 June 2007, the Padstow lifeboat and a rescue helicopter rescued the crews of two yachts in separate incidents from the area. The only warship reported wrecked on the Doom Bar was HMS  Whiting , a 12-gun schooner . The Whiting was originally a cargo ship named Arrow , which travelled from the United States to France; she was captured by the Royal Navy on 8 May 1812 and renamed. On 15 September 1816, she ran aground on

944-634: A site of habitation. In some early cases, the locations provided easy access to exploit marine resources. In modern times, these sites are sometimes chosen for the water amenity or view, but many such locations are prone to storm damage. An area in Northwest Alabama is commonly referred to as “ The Shoals ” by local inhabitants, and one of the cities, Muscle Shoals , is named for such landform and its abundance of Mussels . Submerged forest Marine submerged forests may be regularly exposed at low tide ; examples of these can be found at low tide on

1003-421: A smaller body of water from the sea, such as: The term bar can apply to landform features spanning a considerable range in size, from a length of a few meters in a small stream to marine depositions stretching for hundreds of kilometers along a coastline, often called barrier islands . They are typically composed of sand , although they could be of any granular matter that the moving water has access to and

1062-420: A woman bewailing her dead" is said to be heard after a storm where lives are lost on the sandbar. Rosamund Watson 's "Ballad of Pentyre Town" uses the sandbank for imagery to elicit feelings of melancholy when talking of giving up everything for love. A Victorian poem by Alice E. Gillington , "The Doom-Bar", relates the story of a girl who gave an engraved ring to the man she loved before he sailed away across

1121-439: Is a navigation or grounding hazard, with a depth of water of 6 fathoms (11 meters) or less. It therefore applies to a silt accumulation that shallows the entrance to or course of a river, or creek. A bar can form a dangerous obstacle to shipping, preventing access to the river or harbor in poor weather conditions or at some states of the tide . In addition to longshore bars discussed above that are relatively small features of

1180-511: Is a net inflow of sediment into the estuary. This inflow is aided by wave and tidal processes, but the exact patterns of sediment transport within the estuary are complex and are not fully understood. There is only a very small sediment contribution from the River Camel itself: most of the river's sediment is deposited much higher up the estuary. There are three persistent sandbars in the Camel estuary:

1239-436: Is a sedimentary deposit formed at a harbor entrance or river mouth by the deposition of freshwater sediment or by the action of waves on the sea floor or on up-current beaches. Where beaches are suitably mobile, or the river's suspended or bed loads are large enough, deposition can build up a sandbar that completely blocks a river mouth and dams the river. It can be a seasonally natural process of aquatic ecology , causing

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1298-427: Is capable of shifting around (for example, soil , silt , gravel , cobble , shingle , or even boulders ). The grain size of the material comprising a bar is related to the size of the waves or the strength of the currents moving the material, but the availability of material to be worked by waves and currents is also important. Wave shoaling is the process when surface waves move towards shallow water, such as

1357-417: Is regularly dredged by Padstow Harbour Commission's dredgers, Sandsnipe and Mannin . The Doom Bar has accounted for more than 600 beachings , capsizes and wrecks since records began early in the nineteenth century, the majority of which are wrecks. Larger boats entering Padstow were offered assistance, generally by pilots who would wait at Stepper Point when a ship signalled it would be entering. If

1416-461: The 50 years before 1836. Another report, published about twenty years earlier by Samuel Drew , stated, however, that although the sandbars had been "pillaged" for ages they remained undiminished. An estimated ten million tons of sediment was removed from the estuary between 1836 and 1989, mostly for agricultural purposes and mostly from the Doom Bar. Sand is still regularly dredged from the area; in 2009 an estimated 120,000 tons of sand were removed from

1475-537: The Doom Bar as the tide was ebbing and the wind was from an unfavourable direction offering little assistance. According to court-martial transcripts, an attempt to move her was made at the next high tide, but she was taking on water and it was impossible to save her. Whiting was abandoned over the next few days and the crew salvaged whatever they could. The officer in charge, Lieutenant John Jackson, lost one year's seniority for negligence, and three crewmen were given "50 lashes with nine tails " for desertion. The wreck

1534-414: The Doom Bar formed in the reign of Henry VIII , damaging the prosperity of the port of Padstow a mile up the estuary. Until the twentieth century, access to Padstow's harbour was via a narrow channel between the Doom Bar and the cliffs at Stepper Point , a difficult passage for sailing ships to navigate, especially in north-westerly gales when the cliffs would cut off the wind. Many ships were wrecked on

1593-463: The Doom Bar was regarded as so dangerous that in a storm, vessels would risk being wrecked on the coast rather than negotiate the channel to Padstow harbour. In 1761 John Griffin published a letter in the London Chronicle recommending methods for entering the Camel estuary during rough weather, particularly while north-northwest winds were blowing and described the bolts and rings he had fixed to

1652-446: The Doom Bar, breaking her heart. Four years later, when the tide was lower than usual, her friends persuaded her to walk out on the sand where she found the ring inside a scallop . Realising he must have tossed it aside on the night he left, she resolved not to remain heartbroken, but to sail out to sea herself. A play, The Doom Bar , about smuggling and wrecking was written in the early 1900s by Arthur Hansen Bush . Although there

1711-761: The Doom Bar, but have so far been unsuccessful. The largest ship wrecked on the Doom Bar is believed to be the Antoinette , an 1874 barque of 1,118 tonnes. On New Year's Day 1895, she set sail from Newport in South Wales with a cargo of coal for Brazil, but foundered near Lundy Island , losing parts of her mast. She was towed by a steam tug towards Padstow but struck the Doom Bar and the tow rope either broke, or had to be released. Her crew of fourteen and several men who had attempted to salvage her were rescued by lifeboats from Port Isaac and Padstow, following which she rapidly sank. Attempts by three tugs from Cardiff to remove

1770-406: The Doom Bar, despite the installation of mooring rings and capstans on the cliffs and quarrying away part of Stepper Point to improve the wind. In the early twentieth century, the main channel moved away from the cliffs, and continued dredging has made it much safer for boats, but deaths have occurred on the bar as recently as May 2020. A Cornish legend relates that a mermaid created the bar as

1829-521: The Doom Bar; the Town Bar at Padstow , about 1 mile (1.6 km) upstream; and the Halwyn Bank just upstream of Padstow, where the estuary changes direction. All three are of similar composition; a large proportion of their sediment is derived from marine mollusc shells , and as a consequence, it includes a high level of calcium carbonate, measured in 1982 at 62 per cent. The high calcium carbonate content of

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1888-596: The actual size and shape vary. The name "Doom Bar" is a corruption of the older name Dunbar which itself derives from dune-bar . Although the bar was commonly known as "Dunbar sands" before 1900, the name "Doom Bar" was used in 1761 (as "the Doom-bar"), and it was also used in poetry, and in House of Commons papers in the nineteenth century. For centuries, the Doom Bar was regarded as a significant danger to ships—to be approached with caution to avoid running aground. When sails were

1947-435: The area have always been prone to sudden shifts: several houses were said to have been buried one night during a powerful storm. According to tradition one such shift led to the formation of the Doom Bar during the reign of Henry VIII (1509–1547), causing a decline in the prosperity of Padstow. Today, the sandbank covers approximately 0.4 square miles (1.0 km), linking the beaches near Harbour Cove by sand flats , although

2006-409: The bar and the surrounding estuary. There is a submerged forest beneath the eastern part of the Doom Bar, off Daymer Bay . It is believed to be part of the wooded plain that existed off the current Cornwall coast before it was overcome by sand dunes and beach sand during the last significant rise in sea-level, which ended around 4,000 years ago. Exposed as they are to the Atlantic Ocean, the sands of

2065-459: The bar, thereby removing it. Evidence was given that the bar was made up of "hard sand" which would prove difficult to remove. During the discussions, it was indicated that whilst the sandbank could be removed by a variety of methods, it would not significantly improve access to the harbour, and that a harbour of refuge would be better on the Welsh coast. The committee's final report determined that along

2124-474: The beach slopes more gradually at one end than the other. Sandbars, also known as a trough bars, form where the waves are breaking, because the breaking waves set up a shoreward current with a compensating counter-current along the bottom. Sometimes this occurs seaward of a trough (marine landform). Sand carried by the offshore moving bottom current is deposited where the current reaches the wave break. Other longshore bars may lie further offshore, representing

2183-406: The break point of even larger waves, or the break point at low tide. In Russian tradition of geomorphology , a peresyp is a sandbar that rises above the water level (like a spit ) and separates a liman or a lagoon from the sea. Unlike tombolo bars, a peresyp seldom forms a contiguous strip and usually has one or several channels that connect the liman and the sea. A harbor or river bar

2242-435: The capstans, bollards and mooring rings, would significantly reduce the risk to shipping. During the twentieth century, the Doom Bar was regularly dredged to improve access to Padstow. By the 1930s, when Commander H. E. Turner surveyed the estuary, there were two channels around the Doom Bar, and it is thought that the main channel may have moved to the east side in 1929. By 2010 the original channel had disappeared. The estuary

2301-449: The cliffs to assist ships trying to enter the harbour. Mooring rings were still there in 1824, and around 1830, three capstans at the base of the cliffs and bollards along the cliffs, by which means boats could be warped safely past the bar were installed. In 1846, the Plymouth and Padstow Railway company took an interest in trying to remove the Doom Bar, hoping to increase trade through

2360-462: The country. For Padstow, evidence from Captain Claxton, RN , stated that without the removal of the sand, ships in distress could use the harbour only at high tide. The committee was told by J. D. Bryant, a port commissioner and Receiver of Wreck for Padstow, that in 1848 Padstow Harbour Association had cut down a small piece of Stepper Point, which had given ships about 50 fathoms of extra "fair wind" into

2419-422: The formation of estuaries and wetlands in the lower course of the river. This situation will persist until the bar is eroded by the sea, or the dammed river develops sufficient head to break through the bar. The formation of harbor bars that prevent access for boats and shipping can be the result of: In a nautical sense, a bar is a shoal, similar to a reef : a shallow formation of (usually) sand that

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2478-462: The fringes of the submerged landmass known as Doggerland , around the coast of England and the coasts of Wales, the Channel Islands, north-west France and Denmark. One of the first recorded encounters with submerged forests was in 1892 off of the coast of Mablethorpe . In some places, such as Blackpool Sands, Dartmouth , the remains are normally covered by sand and only rarely exposed. During

2537-502: The harbour at Padstow. The plan was to create a breakwater on the bar, which would stop the build-up of sand, and the railway would transport sand from the nearby dunes to where it was needed for agricultural purposes elsewhere in the south west. In the event, neither the breakwater nor the railway were built, but the issue was re-examined by the 1858 British Parliamentary Select committee on Harbours for Refuge. The select committee took evidence from many witnesses about harbours all around

2596-401: The harbour. Bryant recommended further removal of the point which would allow a true wind along the whole channel past the dangerous sandbar. The select committee report concluded the bar would return through re-silting if it were dredged, and there were insufficient resources to prevent it. Several alternatives were discussed, including the construction of two guide walls to sluice water across

2655-500: The main source of power, ships coming round Stepper Point would lose the wind, causing loss of steerage , leaving them to drift away from the channel . Sometimes, gusts of wind known colloquially as "flaws" blew over Stepper Point and pushed vessels towards the sandbank. Dropping anchor would not help, as it could not gain a firm hold on the sand. Richard Hellyer, the Sub-Commissioner of Pilotage at Padstow, gave evidence in 1859 that

2714-415: The sand has meant that it has been used for hundreds of years to improve agricultural soil by liming . This use is known to date back to before 1600. High calcium carbonate levels combined with natural sea salt made the sand valuable to farmers as an alkaline fertiliser when mixed with manure. In a report published in 1839, Henry De la Beche estimated that the sand from the Doom Bar accounted for between

2773-458: The sand is derived from marine shells , making it an important source of agricultural lime , which has been collected for hundreds of years; an estimated 10 million tons of sand or more has been removed from the estuary since the early nineteenth century, mainly by dredging . The estuary mouth, exposed to the Atlantic Ocean, is a highly dynamic environment, and the sands have been prone to dramatic shifts during storms. According to tradition,

2832-513: The storms of 1974 (see Penparcau ) and the winter storms of 2013–14 in the United Kingdom extensive remains of submerged forests were revealed in a number of places around the coast of Britain. For example, researchers discovered a 10,000 year old submerged forest that used to be part of Doggerland following the storm of 2013. There is also evidence that some submerged forests have disappeared over time as back in 1933, there were reports of

2891-404: The water. Marine shoals also develop either by the in-place drowning of barrier islands as the result of episodic sea level rise or by the erosion and submergence of inactive delta lobes . Shoals can appear as a coastal landform in the sea , where they are classified as a type of ocean bank , or as fluvial landforms in rivers, streams, and lakes . A shoal–sandbar may seasonally separate

2950-402: The waves change direction. For example, if waves pass over a sloping bank which is shallower at one end than the other, then the shoaling effect will result in the waves slowing more at the shallow end. Thus, the wave fronts will refract, changing direction like light passing through a prism. Refraction also occurs as waves move towards a beach if the waves come in at an angle to the beach, or if

3009-450: The whole of the rocky coast between Land's End and Hartland Point , Padstow was the only potentially safe harbour for the coasting trade when the most dangerous north-westerly onshore gales were blowing. It noted that Padstow's safety was compromised by the Doom Bar and by the eddy-forming effect of Stepper Point. The report recommended an initial expenditure of £20,000 to cut down the outer part of Stepper Point, which, in conjunction with

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3068-521: The wreck were unsuccessful, but the next spring tide carried the midsection up the estuary onto Town Bar, opposite Padstow, where it was a hazard to shipping. A miner named Pope was called in to remove it: he used gelignite without success, though the explosion was reported to have broken many windows in the town. In 2010 a wreck, identified as almost certainly the Antoinette , surfaced on Town Bar. The Royal Navy Bomb Disposal Unit failed to demolish it and it

3127-414: Was a mermaid. As she died she cursed the harbour with a "bar of doom", from Hawker's Cove to Trebetherick Bay. A terrible gale blew up that night and when it finally subsided there was the sandbar, "covered with wrecks of ships and bodies of drowned men". The ballad, The Mermaid of Padstow , tells a similar story of a local named Tom Yeo, who shot the mermaid mistaking her for a seal. John Betjeman , who

3186-486: Was created by the Mermaid of Padstow as a dying curse after being shot. In 1906, Enys Tregarthen wrote that a Padstow local, Tristram Bird, bought a new gun and wanted to shoot something worthy of it. He went hunting seals at Hawker's Cove but found a young woman sitting on a rock brushing her hair. Entranced by her beauty, he offered to marry her and when she refused he shot her in retaliation, only realising afterwards that she

3245-588: Was found in Nantucket Sound , off the coast of Massachusetts. In 2012 a submerged bald cypress forest, which has been dated at around 60,000 years old, was discovered in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Alabama . There have been attempts to make it into a marine sanctuary. Submerged forests host a whole variety of flora and fauna . The submerged forest located off of the coast of Alabama near Dauphin Island has

3304-497: Was marked with a buoy; in March 2011 work started to demolish the remainder of it using saws. "[The mermaid legend] is doubtless a myth, but it is a fact that a wailing cry is sometimes heard on the Doombar after a fearful gale and loss of life on that fateful bar, like a woman bewailing the dead." Enys Tregarthen's notes on the Doom Bar legend According to local folklore, the Doom Bar

3363-564: Was no interest in London it was well received in America, and was scheduled to tour in Chicago and New York. A series of mishaps, blamed on the legendary wrecker Cruel Coppinger , culminating in a fire at Baltimore , caused the play to be considered cursed by America's actors' unions and its members were banned from appearing in it. Sandbar In oceanography , geomorphology , and geoscience ,

3422-556: Was sold to salvors and, despite correspondence requesting salvage eleven years later, the navy took no further interest. The Royal Navy attempted to survey the wreck in June 1830, by which time the sandbank had covered most of it. In May 2010 a marine research and exploration group, ProMare, and the Nautical Archaeology Society , with the help of Padstow Primary School, mounted a search for the ship. The groups searched four sites on

3481-415: Was well-acquainted with the area, wrote in 1969 that the mermaid met a local man and fell in love with him. When she could no longer bear living without him, she tried to lure him beneath the waves but he escaped by shooting her. In her rage, she threw a handful of sand towards Padstow, around which the sandbank grew. In other versions of the tale, the mermaid sings from the rocks and a youth shoots at her with

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