Maritime record MWX5144 - MFV No. 9

A motor fishing vessel that sank in 1971 at Chesil Beach, Langton Herring. <1>

'Foundered / Total Loss.' <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.

No more is known about the MFV 9 than that she was a fishing vessel which foundered after being used as a target, probably by a submarine, as the waters to the south and SE comprise a submarine practice area.

'Sunk whilst in use as a target. (Fost 11.11.71).' <3>

She was charted by the UK Hydrographic Office at 50°35'.100 N, 002°35'.400W at a depth of 18m in water 31m deep, as 'MFV 9, entire wreck', but when her wreckage could not be found during an echo-sound search in 1982, her position was amended to DEAD <3>, which means that the location of the sunken vessel is still unknown.

Her tonnage is given as 50 displacement tonnes.

Date of loss qualifier: Actual date of loss.

<1> Le Pard, G, 1995-2003, Dorset Coast Forum Maritime Archaeological Database, 87 (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> https://www.wrecksite.eu/Wrecksite.aspx, Accessed 19-JUL-2010 (Digital archive). SDO20096.

<4> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1521288 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Sep 14 2023 7:52PM