Maritime record MWX1994 - Preveza

Builder: Ropner and Son Where Built: Stockton-on-Tees Engine HP: 270 Boilers: 2 Propulsion: Screw driven, 3 cylinder triple expansion engine. Owner: D Demetriades Master: B Panas Construction: P.deck 29ft.; q.deck 110ft. Date of Loss Qualifier: A (1)(2) Ex-PHOENICIA; Ex-GLENLOIG. After calling at Portland for coal bunkers and stores, the PREVEZA continued to Cardiff to load coal, but this was refused since the vessel was not insured. She was on her way up channel bound for Rotterdam in dense fog when she grounded in Chesil Cove late in the afternoon. News of the stranding reached the local community and tradesmen who had supplied goods but not received payment, who obtained writs which were formally `nailed to the mast. Next morning the tugs PILOT and PETREL attempted to tow her off but failed. The London salvage vessel ELLIDA also failed although managing to hold her off the beach until her bunker fuel was exhausted. A Cosens paddle tug ALBERT VICTOR then took over but the wire snapped, the vessel went back ashore and broke in two a week or so later, in the end being scrapped on the spot. Parts of her boilers are still visible on the foreshore at low tide after a gale. (1)(2) On the 15th of the month, in thick fog the Greek ship PREVEZA ran aground right up in the corner of Chesil Cove.(3) On the 15th there was another stranding at the Portland end of Chesil beach. A week or so earlier the steamship PREVEZA of Argostoli in the Greek Island of Cephalonia had collected bunkers and stores at Portland and they steamed to Cardiff for a cargo, but this had been refused as she was not insured. She was returning up the English Channel bound for Rotterdam, when she became enveloped in dense fog and eventually grounded in Chesil Cove in the late afternoon. In her light condition she drove high up on the ridge with the tide and in the comparative calm seas this at least meant there was no immediate danger to life. News of the stranding quickly reached the shipping community and various tradesmen who had earlier supplied coal and stores, but had not received payment obtained writs which were formally nailed to the masts. Early the next morning two Portland tugs, the PILOT and the PETREL attempted to tow her off at high tide but the former fouled her screw with a towing line and the attempt had to be abandoned (4) The PREVEZA bound for ROTTERDAM, ran aground in Chesil Cove on the 15-JAN-1920 in dense fog. Local tugs were unable to pull her off and were joined by the larger salvage vessel ELLIDA who fouled her own cable and nearly became a casualty herself. In worsening weather conditions the PREVEZA was abandoned and a week later she broke up.(5) 15-JAN-1920, PREVEZA, Greek steamship was a total loss on Chesil Beach at Portland.(6) Additional sources cited in United Kingdom Shipwreck Index: Weymouth Library photos L910.4.PR.1-2 and 7; alsoL910.4.EL.2 LR.1920 No.23745(P) LCR 1920 p8(G)
Boilers still exist buried in beach

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.

Gross tonnage

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

<2> 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.

<3> 1977, Triton Vol 22, No 10., p452 (Article in serial). SWX5972.

<4> Farr, Grahame, 1971, Wreck and rescue on the Dorset coast, p48-49 (Monograph). SWX1056.

<5> 1975, Dorset magazine : the county magazine 49, p30,27 (Photo) (Article in serial). SWX5165.

<6> 1976, Dorset magazine : the county magazine. Dorset Shipwrecks, p24 (Article in serial). SWX5166.

<7> Le Pard, G, 1995-2003, Dorset Coast Forum Maritime Archaeological Database, Shipwreck 137 (Digital archive). SWX8707.

<8> National Record of the Historic Environment, 900878 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Apr 4 2024 2:06PM