Archive Results For: Shipwrecks
The Unsolved Problem of the Franklin Expedition Records Supposedly Buried on King William Island
In May1845 Captain Franklin set sail from the Thames leading an expedition aimed to discover a North-West passage. His ships were seen for the last time in Baffin Bay the following July. The fate of the expedition: unknown. Franklin and his men never came back, so several expeditions took place in the course of the […] Read More
Filed under: Other (Nineteenth C) | Shipwrecks | Arctic
Subjects include: Archaeology
The Loss of H.M.S. Norwich off Port Royal in June 1682
HMS Norwich, a 28 gun frigate under Captain Heywood arrived in Jamaica in 1680 to catch pirates and interlopers. In 1682, on returning from Cartagena, she ran aground on a reef. A bower anchor was laid astern, merchants’ stores and guns unloaded but a leak started, occasioning continuous labour at the pumps. After a day […] Read More
Filed under: Other (Early Modern) | Caribbean | Shipwrecks
Subjects include: Navies | Ship Handling & Seamanship
Bulk Carriers and Timber Imports: The British North American Trade and the Shipping Boom of 1824-5
In the early 19c, a tariff differential was introduced heavily weighted in favour of colonial timber. It led to a post-war economic boom in timber imports from North America. “Columbus”, a huge four-masted barque, comprised 10,000 tons of timber including the hull which was designed to be broken up and sold on arrival, avoiding import […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | Other (Nineteenth C) | Shipwrecks
Subjects include: Merchant Marines | Ship Handling & Seamanship | Shipbuilding & Design
Grace Horsley Darling, 1815 – 1842: Northumbrian Heroine
One of the most celebrated sea rescues took place on 7 September 1838; when Grace Darling and her father William, the Longstone lighthouse-keeper, rescued nine of eighteen survivors from the S.S. Forfarshire, wrecked on the Big Harcar rock in the Farnes Group in a raging gale. Piecing together the conflicting accounts of the disaster and […] Read More
Filed under: North Sea | Other (Nineteenth C) | Shipwrecks
Subjects include: Lifesaving & Coastguard | Ship Handling & Seamanship
The Anson-Squadron Narratives: a Modern View
This article follows events consequent upon the shipwreck of Anson’s supply ship Wager. The article uses the account of Richard Walter, Anson’s chaplain, to set the background. It contrasts the different accounts as the majority of the crew separated from the Captain’s party to find a different route home. This article endeavours to draw out what the accounts tell us […] Read More
Filed under: Mutiny & Discipline | Other (Eighteenth C) | Shipwrecks | Pacific
Subjects include: Navies | Science & Exploration
The Voyage of the Hopefull and the Rose 1833- 34
In 1833, Messrs Enderby proposed a scientific and commercial speculative voyage to the Antarctic. John Biscoe, who had recently returned from a similar voyage, would go on the expedition and would be accompanied by an RN officer, sailing on the brig Hopefull and the yawl Rose. Leadership of the expedition proved problematic and the Rose […] Read More
Filed under: Mutiny & Discipline | Other (Nineteenth C) | Shipwrecks | Antarctic
Subjects include: Science & Exploration
Roman Shipwrecks and Modern Aegean Ships
This article gives details of Roman shipwrecks from just before and after the birth of Christ. It goes into construction materials and methods and compares them with boats constructed in modern times, concluding that changes have been evolutionary, as distinct from revolutionary. The various types of modern boats, their construction and their business, are discussed. […] Read More
Filed under: Antiquity | Other (Early Modern) | Mediterranean | Other (Twentieth C) | Other (Nineteenth C) | Other (Eighteenth C) | Shipwrecks
Subjects include: Archaeology | Shipbuilding & Design
Remains of Two Old Vessels Found at Rye, Sussex
This article is based on the discovery of vessels found in May 1963 in Rye, fourteen feet down. The second vessel ‘B’ was evidently clinker-built “with two skins, one on each side of the ribs.” Not much remains of ‘A’ other than her keel flooring and was probably broken up and left in place. The […] Read More
Filed under: English Channel | High Middle Ages | Other (Early Modern) | Shipwrecks
Subjects include: Archaeology
The Society Annual Lecture 1963: The North Ferriby Boats—A Reappraisal
Going back to the Mariner’s Mirror article of 1947 when these craft were first excavated, the lecture notes their subsequent disintegration which nonetheless revealed important clues to shipbuilding 2,000 years ago. Radiocarbon techniques were employed along with other cutting-edge technologies in archaeology. The author concludes “no doubt now that the Ferriby Boats or their methods […] Read More
Filed under: Prehistory | North Sea | Shipwrecks
Subjects include: Archaeology
The Wreck of the Weymouth
A description of the events that led to the 60 gun ship Weymouth, Captain Calmady, breaking up on a reef in February 1745. Using the ships log and notes from the court martial, the author establishes the cause as a navigational error where the pilot consistently mistook Antigua for Montserrat and neither of the Captains […] Read More
Filed under: Other (Eighteenth C) | Caribbean | Shipwrecks
Subjects include: Ship Handling & Seamanship