Maritime record MWX2226 - Unidentified 1753 c Sloop

Lost at the same time as an unidentified brigantine, both vessels carrying nutmeg, allspice, tobacco and logwood, all of which drove ashore near the wrecks. Since both carried the same cargo, it is presumed they had sailed in company from the same port. [Place of loss given as Durlston Bay.] The ARGYLE (q.v.) may have been one of the two unidentified wrecks mentioned in the first report, or, from her cargo, the third vessel in company. Crew Lost: all? (1) The following may be an account of these wrecks, reported on the other side of the country, which would account for the time lag: `London, Feb. 15...We have an account from Swanage near Pool, that three vessels were lately lost near Luddlestone [sic] Bay, that for several days boats were employed to pick up every thing from the wrecks that could be got. There was a man found dead jammed in between the rocks, who had a ring of value on his finger, which the men took who brought the body on shore. They buried him in the bay at first, but he was taken up again, put into a coffin, and carried to Wareham where he was buried. (2)

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, 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.

<2> 1753, Newcastle Courant, p1 (Serial). SWX6511.

<3> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1377570 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Apr 3 2024 1:23PM