Penarth-Laden Schooner - Lost With All Hands - A Bideford telegram, in connection with the wreck in Bideford Bay of the schooner William Green, bound from Penarth to Youghal, Ireland, with flour, says the crew of five and the captain's wife and child are believed to have perished. Neither the coastguard nor anyone else saw the lights of the vessel. Several of the bodies have been washed up.

A quantity of ladies' wearing apparel amongst the wreckage has led the coastguards to think that the captain's wife must have been on board. The wreck is tight on the rocks, bottom up, close under the cliffs, and high and dry at low water. The coastguards' look-out is within a stone's throw of the wreck, and there they found her at break of day a total wreck, but where and how she came to grief is not known. The bodies of the men found have been identified as those of Michael Youghlin and Michael Walsh, natives of Youghal. The mate - a man named Cook, or something similar — was shipped at Cardiff.

Two Bodies Recovered. The schooner William S. Green, of Youghal, was found keel upwards by the coastguards at Downend. near Braunton, Devon, on Saturday. Underneath the wreckage two dead bodies were found. The vessel, which was laden with flour and coal, left Penarth on Thursday.

Croyde telegrams state that bags of flour are being washed ashore, and that it is feared all hands have been lost. - The Cardiff Times [019] [361] 27th February 1904.

1904 - Wreck of Irish schooner which stranded inside Asp Rocks while en route from Cardiff for Youghal with coal, cereal and bags of flour. Constructed of wood in 1856, she was a sailing vessel. Vessel stranded and lost in wind conditions WSW force 7.

On 22nd February at 7.30 am, James Lee, a 12 year old boy from Croyde, sighted an upturned ship from the beach near Down End. On the high water mark lay a red lifebuoy inscribed William S Green, Youghal. Bodies littered the beach less than a quarter of a mile from a manned Coastguard lookout. No flares had been observed and the Coastguard were later exonerated by a Board of Trade enquiry. Her cargo included flour containers. [936]

There were questions asked about the loss of the vessel in the Houses of Parliament :

Mr. Soares (Devonshire, Barnstaple) - To ask the President of the Board of Trade whether his attention has been called to the wreck of the schooner "William S. Green," at Downend, near Croyde, on the North Devon coast, and to the inquest held on the 23rd inst. on the bodies of the men drowned by reason of the wreck; and, if so, whether he will order an inquiry by the Board of Trade into the circumstances of the wreck, and will see that such inquiry shall embrace the question of the efficiency of the coastguard service in the vicinity of the disaster.

(Answered by Mr. Gerald Balfour.) Yes, Sir, my attention has been called to the case of the "William S. Green" to which the hon. Member refers, and I have ordered a formal investigation to be held into the circumstances which will, of course, embrace the efficiency of the coastguard in so far as it has any bearing on the case. - Hansard [931] 25 February 1904.