The Beams of The Jolly

Spanish Armada

There are some interesting beams inside The Jolly.

In 1588, the Spanish Armada fleet was attacked and shipwrecked off of the Coast of Cornwall. Some of those beams ended up in buildings around the town including The Jolly, the West Looe Church and The Smuggler's Cott.



The story goes... On 31st July 1588, word came that the Armada had been sighted and so an English force led by Sir Francis Drake and Lord Charles Howard left Plymouth to meet it. It is said that when Drake was told of its approach, he simply replied that he had plenty of time to finish his game of bowls before defeating the Spanish.

Relying on the skill of their gunners, Howard and Drake kept their distance and tried to bombard the Spanish flotilla with their heavy naval cannons. While they succeeded in damaging some of the Spanish ships, they were unable to penetrate the Armada’s half-moon defensive formation.

Over the next several days, the English continued to harass the Spanish Armada as it charged toward the English Channel. The two sides squared off in a pair of naval duels near the coasts of Portland Bill and the Isle of Wight, but both battles ended in stalemates. 

HMS Indefatigable

HMS Indefatigable was one of the Ardent Class 64-gun third-rate ships-of-the-line designed by Sir Thomas Slade in 1761 for the Royal Navy. She was built as a ship-of-the-line, but most of her active service took place after her conversion to a 44-gun razee frigate. She had a long career under several distinguished commanders, serving throughout the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. She took some 27 prizes, alone or in company. She was broken up in 1816.

In October 1805 Indefatigable, under Captain John Tremayne Rodd (−1809), was part of the blockade of Brest. One boat each from the ships of the line of the squadron, plus three boats each from Indefatigable and Iris entered the Gironde on 15 July 1806 to attack two French corvettes and a convoy. A change in the wind permitted all but one corvette to escape. The British captured the French corvette César (or Caesar), which the Royal Navy took into service as HMS Cesar. She was armed with 18 guns, had a crew of 86 men, and was under the command of Monsieur Louis Francois Hector Fourré, lieutenant de vaisseau.

The French were expecting the attack and put up a strong resistance. The British lost six men killed, 36 wounded and 21 missing. Indefatigable alone lost two killed and 11 wounded. The 21 missing men were in a boat from Revenge; a later report suggested that most, if not all, had been taken prisoner.

Indefatigable was finally paid off in 1815. She was broken up at Sheerness, on The Isle of Sheppey, Kent, in August 1816. It is thought the landlord of The Jolly may have paid for this beam, which runs along the top of the main bar, at an auction and had it transported to the pub where it supports the Spanish Armada beams in the ceiling that had begun to bow.