Maritime record MWX1557 - Polly 1771

`The POLLY, McLane, from Georgia to London, was drove on shore the 13th inst. About three miles from Bridport Harbour, and immediately beat to pieces, and most of the people on board perished. (2) Master: McLane (2); McLean (1)(3) Date of Loss Qualifier: A


'The POLLY, M'Lean, from Georgia to London, was lost on the 13th instant, near Abbotsbury in Dorsetshire; all the crew perished.'

'A letter from Bridport, Dorsetshire, Oct. 14, says, "We have had a hurricane for two or three days past; a vessel going up the Channel was driven ashore yesterday about three miles from our harbour, and immediately beat to pieces, every soul on board perished. She is supposed to come from South-Carolina, having on board rice, staves, etc.' (4)

'The POLLY, M'Lane, from Georgia to London, was totally lost last Sunday, on the Dorsetshire coast, near Abbotsbury, and all the crew perished.' (5)

Abbotsbury is some 6 miles east of Bridport. Sources (2) and (4) state the position of loss as 3 miles from Bridport, direction not given, and source (5) the position of loss is "near Abbotsbury". In the light of this, it would appear that the position of loss is 3 miles east of Bridport, and therefore "near" Abbotsbury [at this period the term "near" is a nebulous concept] and thus possibly likely to be in the vicinity of Burton Bradstock.

Master: M'Lane (5); McLane (2); M'Lean (6); McLean (1)(3)
Crew Lost: "most" (2); all (4)(5)(6)

Date of Loss Qualifier: Actual date of loss

The building date for this vessel is an estimate based on an average age at wrecking of twenty years. This average is derived from those vessels wrecked on the Dorset coast whose age at wrecking is known.

<1> Larn, Richard, 1992, United Kingdom shipwreck index, Extracted 23 November 1992 (Index). SWX5030.

<2> 1745 onwards, Lloyds list, 18-OCT-1771, No.268 (Serial). SWX8434.

<3> Larn, R, and Larn, B, 1995, Shipwreck index of the British Isles, volume 1 : Isles of Scilly, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset Section 6, Dorset (AJ) Vol 1 (Monograph). SWX4541.

<4> 1769, The Bristol Journal, 19-OCT-1771, No.2897 (Serial). SDO20472.

<5> 1769, The Bristol Journal, 26-OCT-1771, No.2898 (Serial). SDO20472.

<6> Le Pard, G, 1995-2003, Dorset Coast Forum Maritime Archaeological Database, Shipwreck 404 (Digital archive). SWX8707.

<7> Scott, G, 2006, West Bay, Dorset. Undesignated Site Assessment, Final Report, 21 (Unpublished document). SDO15144.

<8> National Record of the Historic Environment, 900512 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Feb 22 2024 2:13PM