Maritime record MWX5077 - Haytian 1940

A steam vessel sunk in Portland harbour, raised and scuttled at this point, very broken lying in silt. (1)

In 1940 she was towed to her final resting place on the outside edge of the Small Mouth Sands. Known locally as the 'Ham Wreck', the plates of the Haytian have now gone, but her ribs and deck beams are still visible. (2)

She had been originally built as a luxury liner for the West Indian run in 1875, by 1910 she had declined in importance and was being used as a coal hulk in Portland Harbour.
Early on the morning of the 18th July 1910 the cargo ship Nymphaea approached the Haytian to take on coal. Two things then went wrong, her engine jammed and could not be put into reverse, and then her anchor cable stuck. Unable to stop the Nymphaea hit the Haytian amidships. She rapidly took on water and sunk two hours later. The crews of the tugs that had gathered to try and tow the Haytian into shallow water, were horrified to see hundreds of rats pour out of her as she settled in the water, ‘like those which followed the Pied Piper of Hamelin”, as one newspaper reported.
A few weeks later the Haytian was raised and continued as a coal hulk for nearly thirty years, until the 18th February 1937 when she was rammed by HMS PC74 and sunk for the second time. This time she was raised several months later by a local salvage expert, George Louis Basso. Fortunately a member of his team took a series of photographs showing the raising of the Haytian.
The Haytian remained in the Harbour for a few more years, before finally being scuttled for the third and final time. (3)

<1> Le Pard, G, 1995-2003, Dorset Coast Forum Maritime Archaeological Database, 111 (Digital archive). SWX8707.

<2> Hinchcliffe, J and V, 1999, Dive Dorset: a diver guide (3rd Edition) (Monograph). SWX1.

<3> Le Pard, G F, 2005, Shipwrecks of the Dorset Coast (Monograph). SDO9637.

Record last edited

Oct 1 2008 11:27AM