Lucky Hugh

If you scour the Internet in search of unusual coincidences, sooner or later you’re likely to run across a story – or make that stories – about Hugh Williams. These are seafaring coincidences that span nearly 200 years.  Here is one version:

A vessel went down in the Menai Strait off the coast of Wales on December 5, 1664. All 81 passengers were lost with the exception of a man named Hugh Williams.

On December 5, 1785, 121 years later, another ship sank in the Menai Strait, and again all of the passengers drowned except one – Hugh Williams.

Move ahead to December 5, 1820 and another ship, a 25-passenger vessel, sank in the Menai Strait. And once again there was a sole  survivor. You guessed it, his name was Hugh Williams.  We could call him the unsinkable Hugh Williams. And notice the month and day are the same each time, as well as the survivor.

Where did this story originate and is there any truth to it? Or is it  just an old maritime tale that has been passed down over time?

The first reference to the unsinkable Hugh Williams is found  on pages 281-282 of North Wales, Including its Scenery, Antiquities and Customs,  1804, by Rev. William Bingley. It describes a Hugh Williams who escaped from a shipwreck on December 5, 1785.

A version of the three-part story appears as a footnote on page 155 of Cliffe’s Book of North Wales, published in 1851.   The story includes the sinkings on December 5, 1664 and 1785, with Hugh Williams, the only survivor.  The date of the 1820 sinking, however, is Aug. 5, not Dec. 15. But Hugh Williams is still listed as the sole survivor.

The footnote goes on to mention that, “Again on May 20th, 1842, a boat was crossing the Menai, near the spot where the above catastrophes happened, when she upset with 15 passengers,  and all perished save one; but in this instance the name of the survivor was Richard Thomas.”

Another book, Guide to North Wales, by Francis Coghlan, was published in 1860. It repeats the story of the three shipwrecks, and includes the August date for the third sinking.

Apparently, an English writer decided this would make a better story if it was brought closer to home. So here’s another version:

On December 5th 1660, a ship sank in the straights of Dover and the only survivor was named Hugh Williams.

On 5th December 1767, another ship sank in the same waters and 127 passengers and crew members died. The only survivor was a Hugh Williams.

On August 8, 1820, a picnic boat capsized on the Thames. There was one survivor – Hugh Williams.

On 10th July 1940, a British trawler was destroyed by a German mine. Only two men survived, one man and his nephew, and they were both named Hugh Williams.

Notice how the Dec. 5 date only occurs twice and the years vary from the earlier version, and the clever twist when there are two survivors. Of course, they are both Hugh Williams.

What are we to make of it all? It seems there is a basis for at least the Hugh Williams story. But it seems that the Dec. 5 on the 1820 sinking probably doesn’t ring true. So the version in the video probably has been altered to make the story seem more mysterious.

But how mysterious is this story?

Coghlan’s account of the three shipwrecks ends with the comment: “This extraordinary coincidence can only be explained by the circumstance that the name of Hugh Williams is very common in these parts.”

Blogger Rick Spillman, who gathered some of these references, not only notes that in Wales Hugh Williams is a common name, but that the Menai Strait  “is a particularly nasty body of water with strong currents and rough seas.”

While the video asks if the Hugh Williams saga is the strangest coincidence ever recorded, the answer is probably not. But it’s a good one, a classic, and historical.