Maritime record MWX1717 - Unidentified 1666 French Cargo Vessel

French cargo vessel, 1666 Loss Date: 01/12/1666 1666 wreck of a French cargo vessel which stranded on Portland beach. A later source suggests that she was 'got off' and is not, in fact, a wreck. Constructed of wood and registered to Morlaix, she was a sailing vessel.

`Dec.1, Weymouth:...Several vessels have been wrecked on Portland beach...The storm began on Tuesday, wind SW, and was very violent; the persons drowned would have been saved had they kept to their vessels. A Morlaix vessel lost had the Duke of Yorks pass, the goods belonging to merchants of London and Dorchester… the goods are all saved. (1)

'Dec. 10. Weymouth. John Pocock to James Hickes. The two vessels cast on to Portland beach are not both broken to pieces as reported, and the Morlaix vessel will be got off again.' (2)

Date of Loss Qualifier: Reporting 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> Calendar of State Papers Domestic, Vol 6 p307 (Monograph). SWX4893.

<2> Calendar of State Papers Domestic, Charles II, 1666-1667, December 1666, Vol. 181, No. 30, 10-DEC-1666 (Monograph). SWX4893.

<3> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1180611 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Oct 12 2023 2:22PM