The "Turkestan" would have been a square sail-ship similar to the image.
This is a shortened version of a report by Fanny and Ethel Holland Thomas - the daughters of Captain Lewis Holland Thomas from Caerffynnon, Talsarnau - from the book "The Caerffynnon Story" written by Heulwen Isambard Owen and Hedydd Isambard Owen published in 1973.
The shipwreck happened on 18th February 1876. "There is a huge ship lying on Harlech beach!" cried Fanny, unceremoniously throwing open the bedroom window in the faint light, after a night of fog and storm. Ethel and she rowed on the tall masts, and the next natural thing was to play truant from the study room and dart down onto the sand to have a look at the wreck of the century. This is not a coastal ship, nor a powerful 300 tonne ocean liner from Porthmadog, but rather 4,000 tonnes of pure beauty lying in the small waves of the shallow water. The "Turkestan" was a square rigged ship built in Liverpool returning on her maiden voyage. It was laden with treasures from the Far East, ivory and silk and herbs.
This amazing ship with its luxurious carpets, bevelled teak woodwork and small shiny mahogany tackles was sailing towards the Merseyside when, after some fatal miscalculation, the ship's prow turned into Ceredigion Bay and ended up on the beach at Harlech. No one noticed that Fanny and Ethel were missing their lessons, and indeed their father, Captain Holland-Thomas joined them on the beach at the request of the local authorities so that he could offer expert advice on how to save the ship. He noticed that one thing was very unusual about the situation. The ship “Turkestan” had two captains. They seemed to share authority equally over the ship. The older of the two was called Captain Black. Captain Starr was a young man with light hair, and he soon became popular in the area.
The advice that Captain Thomas gave was formal to the two captains. “I would love nothing more than to be able to invite you both to my home but I would suggest that you should not leave the ship. That could have the worst possible effect. From then on for many days the ship "Turkestan" was on everyone's mind. Every able-bodied person in the vicinity was busy digging a wide, deep ditch around the ship and down to the water, in the hope that the tide would be able to move the huge weight. Planks greased with soft soap were placed under the keel. This was hot work, and Captain Starr who worked in the middle of the crew, went down to the howld drying the sweat, and grabbed a can of water to quench his thirst. Unfortunately, he drank not water but crude paraffin, - a caustic and deadly drink. And although this was not yet a shipwreck, it claimed its first victim in the sudden death of the captain.
Everyone was expecting the highest tide of the year. The trench was ready and the slippery planks in place. Caerfynnon's family were all on the beach in the middle of the large expectant crowd watching the two tugs approach at high tide and take the ship's ropes. She was gutted in her ditch. The tugs were foaming, and the water in the ditch was boiling as the long keel rose. The “Turkestan” was floating. The tugs pushed in the direction of the deep water. Crack! One ship's rope jumped into the air and snaked away, broken. The ropeless tug drove off into the distance, and the crowd watched in silence as the second tug fought to pull the ship free. The sands of Harlech held his grip like a gel. At high tide the second ship's rope broke.
A huge wave came and tossed the four-masted ship like a toy, tossing it high - high on the beach in a place that would never return to the sea - where the biggest tide would barely touch its sides. There was nothing anyone could do now but begin to detach her luxurious tackle space and officially declare her a wreck. But the local sailors found it very difficult to accept that fact. Buyer after buyer fell in love with this beautiful ship, losing everything with the keel in the sand of the beach, until eventually, with time, the "Turkestan" began to break down and disintegrate.
The ship was very close to the hearts of Caerfynnon children and they played up and down on the useless ladders and along the quiet decks for many a long day. The local children started getting sick with sore throats and workers were driven there to busy the slow rotting work of this once beautiful ship. The last time Ethel saw the "Turkestan" was when, after getting married, she and her husband came to see her old home and they went for a walk along Harlech beach. By then, there was only a wide green pool marking the wreckage.