Devil's Hole

The story

A collapsed sea cave where the swell drives in through a tunnel and erupts upward in rough weather. Its older names include Lé Creux du Vis, the screw hole, and Le Creux de la Touraille. On the night of 28–29 October 1851 the French sloop La Joséphine of Paimpol, carrying rape oil, was wrecked directly below here and broken up. Her second mate, Constant Petitbon, drowned trying to swim for help; four survivors were stranded on rocks more than 200 feet down until a local farmer, Jean Richardson, lowered food to them on ropes and helped them up. What was left of her was auctioned here on 8 November. That December he and his neighbour Nicolas Arthur were each awarded a first-class silver medal by the President of France.