Maritime record MWX1928 - Golden Grape

Schooner, wrecked on Chesil beach 1641, the wreck was extensively looted at the time. Loss Date: 11/12/1641. En route from Cadiz for Dover with a cargo of raisins, oil, sherry and sack, silk, silver plate, coin, oranges, lemons, olives, wool, shot and cannon. Constructed of wood, she was a sailing vessel.

Laden with more than 2,000 barrels of raisins, 400 jars of oil, 12 butts of `sherryes sackes 240 pieces of silk, silver plate and bullion, bags of Spanish coin both gold and silver (pistoles and pieces of eight) and other goods. `On 11th. December last by extremity of fowle weather the shipp was forced on shore uppon the beech in the Weste bay of Portland Island where she was broken to pieces, seven men and boyes drowned and the greatest part of the goods, moneys, plate and loading lost save onely such as were salved by some of the company of the said shipp, and by other people of the countrey who by force and violence tooke and carryed the same away. The point where the wreck struck was near the southern end of the East Fleet, a place called New Works was quite close. The wreck did not entirly break up for four days, and during this time many hundreds of persons worked to get all they could from the wreck. 400 persons were examined regarding stealing. (1)(3) Crew: 21 Date of Loss Qualifier: R Additional sources cited in United Kingdom Shipwreck Index: SDNQ V l XVI P CXXVII M (4). Also recently published locally. (5)

Source (3) states the vessel type as a schooner, which is invalid for the period of loss. This source is based on source (4), which was based on a Commission of the High Court of Admiralty, which sat between 10th January and 28th March 1642. At this period the Julian Calendar was still in operation in England, with the New Year beginning on 25th March, so that dates between 1st January and 25th March were recorded as the previous year by the modern reckoning. The date of the enquiry thus runs from 1641 to 1642, but this would have therefore included the turn of the year on 25th March. (5)

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> 1975, Dorset magazine : the county magazine vol. 48, p13 (Article in serial). SWX4573.

<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> Saunders, G W (ed ), 1920, Notes and Queries for Somerset and Dorset 16 (Article in serial). SWX7292.

Part CXXVII, No.117, "A Wreck on the Chesil Beach in 1641", F J Pope

<5> Attwooll, M, 1998, Discover Dorset - Shipwrecks (Monograph). SWX7293.

<6> Le Pard, G, 1995-2003, Dorset Coast Forum Maritime Archaeological Database, Shipwreck 323 (Digital archive). SWX8707.

<8> National Record of the Historic Environment, 900420 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Sep 19 2023 3:52PM