Maritime record MWX1859 - Cassibelaunus

English barque sunk off Chesil Beach, 26 November 1872.

`...it is remarkable there was no vestige of cargo on the beach from her or ballast, only a knob or two of coal, a barrel of tar and a can of train-oil, although it is known she carried 800 tons of coal. A large piece of her side and bow have been driven up the beach. It appears that on Tuesday, 26-NOV, a small boat was seen drifting a few miles out to sea before the gale. The lifeboat went out from Lyme Regis and found 14 men in it, which they saved. On the night of 22- NOV a heavy sea cleared her decks and she commenced to leak so badly that the crew stayed at the pumps until they saw Start Point, when they abandoned her with more than six feet of water in the hold, and seemingly about to sink. The longboat was got out but immediately stove and abandoned with all the crews clothes and belongings in it. They then prepared the pinnace and drifted until picked up. It would appear that the vessel drove up channel until she went ashore opposite the Coastguard Station. (1)(3) References also state lost off Start Point (2) this was where the crew abandoned the vessel, being rescued by the lifeboat from Lyme Regis. In July 2004 filming, by RDF Media for the television programme Wreck Detectives, took place on an unidentified wreck off Chesil beach which the discoverers hoped would prove to be De Hoop. The finds dated the wreck to the late nineteenth century, and from its position the wreck was provisionally identified by the site archaeologist, Gordon le Pard, as that of the Cassibelanus (4) Master: Cowell Crew: 14 Additional sources cited in United Kingdom Shipwreck Index: ST 30 11 1872. Net Tonnage 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.

Record last edited

Jan 9 2020 11:37AM