Maritime record MWX5178 - Reliance

'Owned by Francis and Ann Davison, who intended to cruise the world in search of their paradise island, came to grief on the east coast of Portland Bill. They sailed from Fleetwood on 17th May with just two persons aboard, but when off Portland their sails were blown away and during the gale [Mr Davison] was washed overboard. Coastguards at Portland Bill discovered the wreck next morning half sticking out from Cave Hole, with no one on board. Mrs Davison had climbed up the cliffs near the lighthouse and was later taken to the Coastguard cottages for shelter. The wreck quickly went to pieces in heavy weather.' (1)

Built: 1903 (1) (2)
Builder: Liver & Wilding Ltd (2)
Where built: Fleetwood (2)
Tonnage: 80 gt at time of loss, and possibly after addition of engine(1); 20 nt, measured 1904 while vessel was sailing trawler and prior to addition of engine. (2)
LBD: 21.34 x 5.52 x 1.92m (1); 64 x 18.1 x 8.21 ft (2)
Propulsion: Sail when built, auxiliary motor added 1925 (2)
Crew: 2 (1) (2)
Crew lost 1 (1) (2)
Ownership / registration details:
1903 -Built as RELIANCE FD210, a sailing trawler and registered at Fleetwood to 6 owners (2)
1924 - 1947? - Owned by ME Leadbetter, still as a trawler (auxiliary motor added and vessel registered at Whitehaven WA25 in 1925). (2)
1947 - 'Sold to Mr & Mrs Davison for conversion to a yacht.' (2)

The UK Hydrographic Office (Source 3) had charted a vessel as RELIANCE (Probably), entire wreck at 50°31.24N, 002°26.53W on the basis of the report of her sinking, and a photograph cited in UKHO record no. 18609. Sources 2 and 4 show photographs of the vessel partly inside of a cave and the photograph mentioned in source 3 was presumably also a comtemporary photograph of the as yet unbroken vessel. After failing to find the vessel in the charted position in 1991 however, the record was amended to DEAD (3). Source 4 however seems to contradict that there no vessel remains to be found, stating that 'Part of the engine, a twin cylinder diesel, can still be seen lying on the sea bed… within the mouth of the cave.' It is possible that although source 4 was published in 1999 and thus after the report in source 3, the remains noted above were first described in the earlier editions of the publication and had broken up completely by the time of the 1991 survey.

Source 4 shows a photograph of the vessel within the cave into which she was blown on her final voyage.

Source 5 shows a photograph of the vessel as a sailing trawler.

It also appears possible that the vessel was requisitioned by the Navy in WWI. A vessel named RELAINCE is listed by source 6 as having been 'hired on harbour service' between 1915-1919. The vessel mentioned may not be that recorded here however, as source 6 lists it as a Drifter (not trawler), and there is no mention of such service in source 2, which seems a fairly comprehensive account of the vessel's ownership history.

Additional sources cited in Shipwreck Index of the British Isles: Davison, A. 'Last Voyage'; Weymouth Library l910 4 RE 1-2-3

A ketch that sank off Portland Bill in 1949, owned by Francis Davison. (7)

In 1949 the ketch Reliance ran into Cave Hole on Portland. Ann Davison, one of the two people on board described the wreck; ‘Then the tall cliff face was upon us with a tremendous splintering crash. The bowsprit snapped like kindling. The flare was out. The night was dark. We clung to the mainsheets in a pool of light thrown by the lamps in front of the wheelhouse. She began to roll. From side to side, rails under, with incredible speed, as if she would roll right over. A colossal jolt; the shock travelling from stem to stern. The mainmast sagged, came over, seemed to hang suspended. The boom dropped and we leapt from under. Before our horrified eyes the bows of the vessel buried into the very face of the cliff.’ (Ann Davison, Last Voyage) She survived though her husband was drowned. The woman in the photograph is thought to be Ann Davison. (8)

<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> http://www.fleetwood-trawlers.info/index.php/category/sailing-trawlers/sailing-trawlers-picture/, Accessed 15-JUL-2010 (Digital archive). SDO20522.

<3> https://www.wrecksite.eu/Wrecksite.aspx (Digital archive). SDO20096.

<4> Hinchcliffe, J and V, 1999, Dive Dorset: a diver guide (3rd Edition), 83 (Monograph). SWX1.

<5> http://float-trawlers.lancashire.gov.uk, Accessed 15-JUL-2010 (Digital archive). SDO20521.

<6> Colledge, J J, 1989, Ships of the Royal Navy. Volume 2: navy-built trawlers, drifters, tugs and requisitioned ships from the fifteenth century to the present, 185 (Monograph). SDO20520.

<7> Le Pard, G, 1995-2003, Dorset Coast Forum Maritime Archaeological Database, 84 (Digital archive). SWX8707.

<8> Le Pard, G F, 2005, Shipwrecks of the Dorset Coast (Monograph). SDO9637.

<9> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1521090 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Feb 22 2024 3:02PM