Lignum naufragium helvetiae (Nauf-helv-li) = Shipwreck of „the Helvetia“ on the coast of Wales

[Mary English]

This proving was the result of a lovely short break that my son and I had in The Gower Peninsula, on the South Coast of Wales.

On the beach at Rhossilli Bay is the wreck of The Helvetia which has lain there for over 115 years. I decided to take a small portion of the hull of the boat to make a proving and I sent it to my friend John Lee (alias Nhoj Eel) at Ainsworths. He made it up to a C 30. I went home and organised the proving and did some research about the actual wreck.

I took one dose of the remedy myself a month before the proving started, just in-case it held any deep corners...........and have remained 'stuck' ever since.

In writing up these notes I am releasing the energy of the proving: the sense of stuckness.

All provers expressed watery words: 'washed out', 'bloated', 'sinking under water', 'drained', 'bubbly tummy', 'tearful' and their symptoms were expressed through the watery parts of the body: 'runny nose', 'fluent, clear choryza both nostrils', 'sore eyes', 'weeing in the night', 'sore fanny'.

One prover even had a strange experience while he was in a cafe:

P1 "...when paying I drop a penny, for a brief moment I see it fall in slow motion, like it's sinking under water, I want to ask the cafe staff 'Wow! Did you see that ?'", but coupled with this were feelings of being blocked, physically as well as emotionally.

One prover had a 'blocked and runny nose', another felt 'over-stuffed' from eating too much, their thinking was blocked: 'can't concentrate', 'things not making sense'; speech was even blocked: 'tongue tied'; their work was blocked: 'procrastination' and 'uninspired' in their creativity. Their emotions took a hh. mering: 'heart not in it', 'cruel', 'impassioned observer', 'automaton', 'rankled', 'moody', 'peeved', 'mardy', 'indifferent', 'frustrated' and 'impatient'.

It even went as far as being physically blocked, which I found the most surprising:

P7 " I was late, because I kept getting blocked by impassable vehicles; diggers etc."

P3 "- the weather was awful - so gave up trying to get to Watford - traffic a nightmare, total gridlock - turned round and ch. e home."

P6 "Take the tube and got the wrong branch of the Northern line!!!"

P5 "Excessive problems getting to work. Trains broke down, buses broke down, traffic congestion. Whichever route I took was just as difficult."

P2 "Kept quiet in the court, but was frustrated by the days events, not being able to collect our authentication & marriage certificates and all the discussions in the one language I struggle to understand (Wolloff)."

Being blocked ch. e out in other ways too. This prover has to work in retail to supplement her income and it's not what she wants to do, and in this exh. ple she blocks out the words of her 'controller':

P4 'Friday 1st November - 'Slept well, sorry still no dreh. s. Getting in to work. Loads of traffic. Hard day. Worked at the shop. Area Controller at me to work more Saturdays, closing later now, open Sundays! Time I got home I was quite down about it. But J helped, it's only a job. Found it difficult to concentrate when Controller was talking to me, suppose I've heard it all before'.

Background of the shipwreck

'In the days before the telegraph, telephone and radio many vessles were wrecked unknown to more than a few on the shore. The imperilled crew required immediate assistance from onlookers, it would be hours before the rescue services (such as existed) could be alerted, by which time it may have been too late to save either life or property.

.......the Gower coast was totally without a lifeboat service and rescue depended on the shipwrecked's own efforts or the initiative and courage of those who were prepared to launch a boat from the shore.'

On the beach at Rhosili Bay in The Gower Peninsula, South Wales, lies the wreck of The Helvetia. The Helvetia was a barque, a sailing ship, from Horten in Norway. It had sailed from Campbelton, New Brunswick on the east coast of Canada and contained a cargo of timber. On the night of Monday 31st of October 1887 the ship, on it's journey to Swansea, reached Mumbles Head, only 5 miles or so from its destination. The captain ordered for 'signals to be burnt' so that a pilot could guide them on the last leg of their voyage into the harbour. However, a 'fresh breeze' sprang up from the South East and they couldn't make it to shore as the wind was blowing against him, so they had to stay where they were in the channel.

By 8 h. on Tuesday the vessel had been blown back to The Helwick Sands, a good 10 miles away from the harbour and then the wind changed again, this time blowing South west, in gale conditions, which would effectively send the ship back out to sea. The Helvetia was now having difficulty staying put and was drifting towards the shore. Then the current drove her over the bank, she lost part of her deck load and ran aground past Worm's Head and was anchored in Rhossilli Bay.

At low tide the Helvetia got stuck into the sand and the 'Life saving apparatus' (LSA) was called for by the coastguard. The ship was secured with heavy chains and cables but the wind 'went round to the west' and at 17.30 h. she broke free and drove onto the beach where her remains still lie.

Approx 500 tons of cargo was salvaged from the wreck and everything saleable was stripped from „the Helvetia“. More than 115 years later you can still see the hull of the ship embedded in the beach at Rhosili and this I found in the summer of 2002.

I have included as full an account as possible of the actual sinking of the Helvetia because, as you will see, a lot of what happened then, happened to my provers.

The sense of nearly being at the destination, of being knocked off course but still being hopeful of recovery, of then having to give in to the 'elements' and finally of being run aground, run ashore, wrecked.

Physical symptoms

As this proving only lasted a week, the physical symptoms are mostly acute and centre around cold-like feelings, feeling cold, low thirst, headaches and nocturia (at night).

'Wed 30th October 6.20h. . Started sneezing about 5 mins after taking pill, got small headache, but didn't last long. (Don't often have headaches).'

'Sat 2nd November 4.55 h........noticed I have the habit of going to the toilet in the middle of the night, these past few nights.'

'Sun 3rd November 5.45 h. Awoke, COLD, noticed change of temperature and felt dizzy walking to toilet. Have heavy head cold, blocked and runny nose.'

'Sat 2nd November . Slept badly, was cold in the night.'

'Tues 29th October 8 h. fluent choryza, clear both nostrils. Coughing 10-10.40 small white phlegm. Mild headache L temple (on and off all day) Hot & feverish in evening, gland swelling in neck from 4-Slept (in my overcoat) 6.00 - 7.15.'

'Tues 29th October. At 21.00 feel sneezy, it does not feel like a cold but more like a kind of allergy. It goes after a while.'

'Wed 30th October. 7.00 Woke up, I've got a bit of a runny nose, just a little bit.'

'Thurs 31st October. 11.30 Began to feel tired and headachy, fluish??'

'Thurs 31st October. 8.30 h. I wake up feeling OK but a little snotty!'

'Tues 30th Oct I woke in the night for a wee.'

'Thurs 31st Oct I woke up in the night for a wee.'

'Fri 1st Nov I woke up in the night for a wee.

'Sat 2nd Nov Took 5th and final pill before bed last night. I woke up in the night for a wee.'

..........after he'd finished the pills this didn't happen again.

Dreams: This prover h dreams t what other provers actually had happen; he couldn't reach his destination.

'I dreamtt of taking a bus journey and missing my stop and having to get off at a terminus I didn't know. Another passenger had done the same and it took us a long time to find where we were and how to get back.'

This prover had an element of water that shouldn't have been there:

'Dreams t of walking up stairs & stairs with a friend to look for the right office, have instructions to look for a red button with writing on but there were lots of doors, with lots of red buttons. Lots of people inside the offices, doing lots of paperwork. Waited in the hallway for a friend. When we got to the bottom there was a deep water, instead of ground and people were talking about mortgages, and what good deals they got in different jobs and countries. I listened silently, but not happy about people's hints that I'd eventually have to get a mortgage?!!'

This prover had lots of water and sea dreams.

'I h. cleaning the fridge, using lots of water and I remember being in a bad mood.'

'Another about cleansing: 1 h. in the bathroom of my grandmother's house, where we spent every holiday as children and teenagers. A very big house in a village. A piece seems to be missing from the shower. Someone has used it for the WC pipe. I find this very strange so take the shower piece to put back in the tap shower but for some reason it is now inside the WC.

There is an Indian girl with me who is worried about catching an infection if she gets it. I put my hand down the WC and get it and realise it looks like a semiprecious gem (a bit like rose quartz) with a hole in it (for the water I suppose).'

'1 h. swimming in the sea. I remember a big rock on the right, open sea. There are two diver men around as well looking for something. It suprises me to see the big masks on their faces, they seem old-fashioned to me. The water is clean but not crystal clear. I decide I do not want to know that is beneath for the moment.'

This prover combined a dream and a physical symptom on the 2nd day:

'I woke up in the night for a wee. I was dreams ing something about being outside in the British semi-countryside with girls and there were ditches and moisture.'

More dreams of water:

'Had a very weird dreams about a strange complex of living accommodation. Made up of old middle eastern type houses all sandstone and stone floors with no doors but arches dividing the rooms and also derelict houses and very smart ones all together. There was a funny swimming pool that roared like the sea.'

The silly thing about doing a proving, is finding out afterwards why things happened the way they did. The Helvetia, on her journey to Swansea, had started in Canada ..........but what threw me completely was re-reading the provers dreams and finding this:

'Tuesday, 29th October... 'then we were in a street and we were hiding from Canadian Mounties behind a wall! Then, N (her husband) got on a bus which drove through a different restaurant (her previous dreams was about a restaurant) and it came out of the back of the restaurant and N dived into a swimming pool from the top of the bus. The swimming pool was a very large bathtub and there was another man sitting in it. We were all talking together with another man who had a net tied around his tongue!!'

Another prover picked up where the boat ended up, in Wales..........

'Thursday 31st October...'Dreamt of being with the same girl (as in previous dreams) in a airport Waiting Lounge for Welsh speakers; they were not talking to each other, and although it wasn't overt, it was probably because the girl and I (English speakers) were there that they weren't being friendly towards each other.'

Not only did he dream about Wales, but this happened:

'Had to visit a customer after work. Couldn't find the house - pissed off. I tuned into BBC Radio Wales and felt great comfort - 'cos I don't want to hear English people.'

Repertorium:

Gemüt: verträgt es nicht behindert zu werden

Denken abgeneigt

Ehrgeiz - blockiert/unerfüllt

< Geistige Anstrengung/Konzentration schwierig

Kreativität verloren

Reizbar, gereizt (mit Angst)

Spricht undeutlich

Stumpf (durch geistige Anstrengung)

Torpor/untätig

Ungeduld

Ungeschickt

Unternimmt vieles, hält aber bei nichts durch, bleibt nicht dabei

Verschiebt alles auf den nächsten Tag

Zorn (wird leicht, schnell zornig)

Nase: Niesen nach Aufstehen

Verstopft [+ Absonderung (wässrig)]

Magen: Appetit ohne Genuss/unstillbar

Durstlos

Gluckern; Gurgeln

Völlegefühl < nach Essen

Schlaf: Schläfrig - nachmittags/abends (18 h)/< nach Essen

Träume: Putzen, Reinigen/Schwimmen (im Meer)/Tauchen im Meer/große mengen von Wasser

Allgemeines: > Baden, Waschen

Schweregefühl innerlich

Schwäche

Vergleich: Siehe: Neuston + Seegruppe

Vorwort/Suchen Zeichen/Abkürzungen Impressum