Maritime record MWX4915 - Ardente

The Ardente is reported to have stranded in Weymouth Bay in 1914. (1)

It is very rare for a lifeboat to be photographed carrying out a rescue, the conditions are, understandably, usually against it. This makes this picture of the Weymouth lifeboat Friern Watch rescuing the crew of the French schooner Ardente particularly interesting. On the 11th December 1914 the Ardente dragged her anchors in Weymouth Bay. The lifeboat tried to get a line onboard so a tug could tow her to safety, but this proved impossible. The lifeboat then rowed close into the French vessel and managed to get the five crew members off just before she struck.(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.

Salvaged

Farr, Grahame, 1971, Wreck and rescue on the Dorset coast (Monograph). SWX1056.

Boddy, M, 1975b, Dorset Shipwrecks part 2 (Article in serial). SWX7302.

Larn, R, 1996, Shipwrecks of the Devon Coast. (Monograph). SWX7989.

<1> Le Pard, G, 1995-2003, Dorset Coast Forum Maritime Archaeological Database (Digital archive). SWX8707.

<5> Cumming, E, The Dorset shipwreck and maritime incident directory, 10 (Monograph). SDO16406.

Record last edited

Dec 2 2019 11:39AM