Maritime record MWX1861 - Marie Reine

`On Sunday last during a dreadful storm, a fine French barque was wrecked. It blew a SW gale all morning, veering at midday to SSW and increasing. The barque was seen in West Bay in distress, her crew trying everything to get her off, but she drove ashore. The coastguard and the rocket apparatus were all on the beach, following her from place to place, including customs officials, the superintendent of the Sailors Home, and Captain Scott of HMS ROYAL ALFRED, accompanied by some seamen. The wreck appeared at 4pm as if it would go ashore almost directly opposite where the ROYAL ADELAIDE was lost, but then turned and headed for Chesil, causing the people ashore to run to keep up with her. At 4.45pm she struck, and huge seas went over her topmasts. She swung beam on to the shore and only seven minutes later, as the rocket apparatus arrived, a line made contact and the crew were saved. Mast after mast then fell, with a deafening crash each time, and she split in two. (3) `Vessel was seen two miles off Chesil Beach trying to make for the westward, but after a mile had to wear ship. For an hour the captain attempted to weather Portland Bill, but found himself embayed, and whilst it was still daylight, he backed the yards and attempted to beach the ship. A terrific storm was in progress, the wind at hurricane force at 5pm. The vessel stranded 30 yards from the beach, the first line fired by the rocket apparatus missing the ship. Two crew members, thinking they could swim ashore, went over the side, but were swept away. A second rocket line landed across the ship, but the crew did not understand how to rig it, and merely tied it to the vessel instead of pulling out the heavier breeches buoy cable. The equipment was eventually rigged and the rest of the crew came ashore in the cradle, including the captain who had broken his arm. The masts fell shortly after, and within 30 minutes the vessel was a total wreck. (3) Vessel was taken from the Germans in the Franco-Prussian war. There are two consecutive entries for this vessel in source (3), the first as an unidentified vessel with a date of loss of 24-JAN-1875, and the second under the name of MARIE REINE, with a reported date of loss of 30-JAN-1875. Master: Durand Crew: 14 Crew Lost: 4 Date of Loss Qualifier: A Additional sources cited in United Kingdom Shipwreck Index: Illustrated Times 30 01 1875(R); Weymouth Library pamphlet

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.

Net tonnage

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

<2> 1897, Southern Times, 30-JAN-1875 (Serial). SWX2003.

<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> Le Pard, G, 1995-2003, Dorset Coast Forum Maritime Archaeological Database, Shipwreck 729 (Digital archive). SWX8707.

Record last edited

Nov 29 2007 2:29AM