Steamer Charles Jose beached at Slapton Sands

Belgian Steamer the Charles Jose of Antwerp ran aground at midnight at Slapton Sands in Devon on 18 December 1933. Nine members of the crew and the captain's wife were rescued by rocket apparatus from Torcross in the glare of motorists' headlamps and the captain remained with the vessel because this ensured the cargo for salvage was therefore not lost to the company. Mist and fog may have been the cause of the grounding.

The steamer was refloated on 2 January 1934 but not before the cargo had been discharged on the beach to lighten the load. Iron, any old iron, scrap iron, in fact! Two large piles amounting to three hundred tons of scrap iron were removed by a local company and taken to Dartmouth for reshipment. The Charles Jose also tied up in Dartmouth before returning to service. The steamer was formally owned by Messrs J P Hutchinson Ltd and named SS Paris because it was built in Paris in 1899. At the time of this incident it was owned by George van der Perre. The vessel sank on 4 October 1934 off the Dutch coast four miles west of the Haaks Lightvessel on passage from Ghent to Bremen carrying coke.