Maritime record MWX5137 - Marguerita

A fishing trawler that sank off Portland Bill in 1946. A Danish fishing drifter which grounded on rocks near First Beach and foundered just to the south-east in 1946 in heavy weather, en route from Milford Haven to Denmark, just one month after being purchased by her final owner. She had served as an Admiralty vessel in both WWI and WWII. Built of wood in Thorne in 1918, she was a steam-driven vessel at the time of her loss. Her possible remains are recorded as 1521055.

A fishing vessel that sank off Portland Bill in 1946. The trawler was owned by Bruno Nielson. (1)
First registered in Hull in 1919, she transferred to the Milford Haven register in 1929 and after WW2 was sold to a Danish company. Mr Neilson and his crew of six, four of whom were Danish, sailed from Milford Haven against the advice of the Coastguards in extremely rough weather with worse forecast, their reason being that they wished to spend Christmas at home with their families. On 05.12 they reached Newlyn in Cornwall, where two of the men left the ship. Again, against all local device, they put to sea in heavy weather and this was the last time the vessel was seen before being driven ashore at Portland with the loss of her entire crew. At low spring tides her propeller shaft dries out and a boiler survives in the shallows.(2)'Admiralty wood drifter, steam screw, coal burning. Dandy rigged: foresail and mizzen.' (1)

'First registered at Hull in 1919, she transferred to the Milford Haven register in 1929 and after WWII was sold to a Danish company. Mr Nielson and his crew of six, four of whom were Danish, sailed from Milford Haven against the advice of the Coastguards in extremely rough weather with worse forecast [because] they wanted to spend Christmas at home with their families. On 5th December they reached Newlyn in Cornwall, where two of the men left the ship. Again, against all local advice, they put to sea in heavy weather and this was the last time the vessel was seen before being driven ashore at Portland with the loss of her entire crew.' (2)

Source 1 cites several newspaper reports of accidents and incidents in the vessel's history. These include the drowning of one of its crew in 1933 (3 cited in 1), the selling of the vessel to the Swedish owners (elsewhere referred to as Danish) on Nov 22nd 1946 (4 cited in 1), and finally reports of the inquest into her loss, which concluded that the captain 'should not have attempted to make the journey with a vessel of the size and build of the MARGUERITA with one single screw.' (5 cited in 1)

Built: 1918 (6, p209); 1919 (2) (5 cited in 1)
Where built: Thorne, Yorkshire (1)
Builder: Richard Dunston (1)
Propulsion: 3-cylinder, single screw triple expansion engine (2)
Engine: by Great Central Co-operative Engineering and Ship Repairing Company, Grimsby (1)
Boiler: x 1, by Hewitt and Kellett, Bradford (1)
LBD: 86.6 x 20 x 9.9 feet (1)
Tonnage: 96.15 gt, 31.92 net (1)
Crew: 7 at time of loss (2); 8 (1) (2)
Crew lost: 7 (2)
Ownership and registration details:
1918 - 1919 - Admiralty registered no.4000 as SPATE H326 (6, p209)
1919 - 1929 - Sold out of service (6 p209) and registered in Hull (2); as SPATE H326. (1)
1929 - 1939 - Sold to SJ Hellings, renamed the MARGUERITA M11 (1) and registered in Milford Haven (1) (2)
1939 - 1945 - Sold to RL Hancock, requisitioned by the Admiralty and converted for harbour service (1) (2) (6 p209, p143)
1945 - returned to RL Hancock.
Nov 1946 - Sold to B Nielson (1), registered in unknown port in Denmark, with whom she remained until the time of her loss. (2)

The wreck is not listed by the Hydrographic Office but is described by Diver Magazine as lying '40m off Portland Bill' (7). It is not clear how the vessel found there was identified or precisely where she lies, and for these reasons the approximate position of the wreck which may be that of the MARGUERITA is recorded separately as 1521055.

Date of loss qualifier: Actual date of loss

Additional sources cited in Shipwreck Index of the British Isles:
The Southern Times/ Weymouth and Portland Gazette 27.12.1946 (R)

<1> Le Pard, G, 1995-2003, Dorset Coast Forum Maritime Archaeological Database, 83 (Digital archive). SWX8707.

<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> West Wales Guardian, Fri 26th May 1933 (Serial). SDO20519.

<4> West Wales Guardian, Friday 22nd Nov 1946 (Serial). SDO20519.

<5> West Wales Guardian, Friday 27th Dec 1946 (Serial). SDO20519.

<6> Hinchcliffe, J and V, 1999, Dive Dorset: a diver guide (3rd Edition), 83 page 81 (Monograph). SWX1.

<7> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1521051 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Feb 21 2024 1:26PM