People have been messing about in boats for thousands of years. Either by accident or design, many boats and ships have ended up on the shore or seabed. Shipwrecks can be very complicated things to understand, because they represent such a mix of technology and tradition in their construction, and of equipment, cargo and personal possessions in their contents. The stories they tell can be close to home, or of far off lands, and their last journeys range from the everyday to the extraordinary.
Latest shipwrecks added to our blog:
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The remains of an unidentified wreck broken in two parts and lying on the port side.
The dimensions of the wreck and surrounding debris scatter measures 76m x 16m. The shipwreck is lying in 27m of water and is located to the SW of Littlehampton, West Sussex.
In August 2002 the site was surveyed with sidescan [...] - Recent work by Wessex Archaeology in the Thames Estuary has been captured in two BBC programmes Thames Shipwrecks: a race against time. The programmes have been produced by Touch Productions and broadcast on BBC2 on Tuesday 26 August and Tuesday 2 September 2008.
The programmes examine a series of wrecks within the main navigation channels looked [...] - Commonly known as the “Bottle Wreck”, this site mainly consists of a mound of cargo, since the vessel itself is badly deteriorated. Secondary sources have characterised this wreck as a small sailing coaster or barge with at least two masts. It carried a cargo of cast-iron pipes, beer (in barrels and bottles), [...] - This is the wreck of an unknown steam trawler, probably dating to the first quarter of the 20th century. The vessel is lying on the starboard side and although most of its structure is absent, part of a funnel is visible on the seabed, together with an iron propeller and winch.
The site is [...] - Documentary research and geophysical data have identified this wreck as the Belgian steamer Concha, built in 1877. The vessel sank after colliding with the steamer Saint Filians. The Concha’s valuable cargo of tin and copper ore was salvaged shortly after its sinking, but the iron ore cargo still remains in and around the [...] -
This wreck is the remains of the Umba, an early 20th century merchant vessel that was torpedoed by a German submarine in 1918. The wreck is also commonly known as the “Gun Wreck” after a Russian 6 pounder gun was found mounted on the poop.
The site is located 5.5nm south of Hastings, just to [...] - The Swash Channel wreck was discovered in 2004 during a geophysical survey by Wessex Archaeology in advance of dredging to deepen the approach to Poole Harbour. The wreck lies in approximately 6-9 metres of water with its long axis orientated north-east to south-west.
The site is part of the side of an unknown vessel, with frames, [...] -
In August 2002, Wessex Archaeology carried out a sidescan sonar and magnetometer survey of this unnamed site, south of Hastings, East Sussex. The site was located using data obtained from the UKHO. There was no dive survey due to adverse weather conditions.
The wreck has a significant magnetic signature, suggesting it is constructed from a ferrous [...] -
This is the wreck of the Devon Coast, an early 20th century three-masted steamer that sank in 1908 after a collision with another steamer, Jeanie. Locally the site is known as the “Stone Boat” due to the cargo of cement it was transporting. However it has now been identified as the Devon Coast after a [...] - This unidentified vessel is known as the “Portland Stone Wreck” and is most likely the remains of a sailing barge or barge-like vessel that sank in the second half of the 19th century. Little of the vessel is visible above the seabed, however the lower sections of the hull are likely to be preserved under [...] - The true name of the Tal-Y-Bont wreck is unknown, but it was probably a 700-ton Genoese merchant ship lost in 1709 while carrying a cargo that included carrara marble blocks and paper. The wreck takes its name from the Tal-Y-Bont beach area in Cardigan Bay where it was found in 1978 by a group of [...] - This site contains the remains of an unidentified and very broken up vessel, lying in two sections. The identification of the boiler and the construction method of the riveted plate implies that the wreck was built pre-World War II, and probably sank either during the war or shortly after.
The wreck is situated [...] - The last post on the wreck of the ss Mendi described the recent assessment of geophysical data for the site carried out by Wessex Archaeology.
We are please to announce that this project report is now available online. To download a copy please click here.
- A combination of documentary research and geophysical data have identified this shipwreck as that of the mid 19th century Swedish steamer Talis. The vessel sank with its cargo of coal after a collision with the ss Roman. In dive guides the wreck is usually called the “1906 wreck” after the year it sank and was [...] -
Wessex Archaeology has just processed and interpreted sidescan and multibeam data from the wreck of the troopship Mendi, which sank with the loss of 649 lives after a collision off the Isle of Wight on 21 February 1917. The project was jointly funded by the South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA) and English Heritage.
Geophysical Survey [...]
People have been messing about in boats for thousands of years. Either by accident or design, many boats and ships have ended up on the shore or seabed. Shipwrecks can be very complicated things to understand, because they represent such a mix of technology and tradition in their construction, and of equipment, cargo and personal possessions in their contents. The stories they tell can be close to home, or of far off lands, and their last journeys range from the everyday to the extraordinary.