Maritime record MWX1938 - Unidentified 1750 Dutch Cargo Vessel

Dutch cargo vessel, 1750 Loss Date: 10/02/1750

`They write from Lyme in Dorsetshire, that in the late high wind a Dutch ship, having 700 hogsheads of tobacco on board ship was drove ashore between that place and Portland. Twenty-six of her men were drowned, and the ship was plundered by the savages of the county. A French ship was also lost at the same time near the same place. (2) The following may be a description of this vessel or of the LA CARP: `A ship, name unknown, upwards of 300 tons, was seen the 2nd instant about 4 miles to the westward of Portland Road, with her main and foremasts gone. They write, if the gale continued, it was impossible for her to ride it out. (3) At the time of loss the Julian Calendar was still in use in England, with the New Year beginning on 25th March. Therefore dates between 1st January and 24th March are one year later in modern (New Style) reckoning than the date printed on Lloyds List; the date of loss has been amended to 1750 to reflect this. There are some similarities of detail between this vessel and the SQUIRREL (q.v.), which appears to be an English vessel, however. According to the accounts of the LA CARP and the SQUIRREL, from LL, 14 persons were lost from the former and 12 from the latter, making 26 altogether; which, if the two vessels were the two wrecked at the same time and place, might account for the 26 lost according to source (2). Crew Lost: 26 D t (3) 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

May 12 2008 2:02AM