Maritime record MWX1943 - Golden Grove

1795 wreck of an English cargo vessel which stranded near Passage House in a gale. A wooden sailing vessel which was en route from London for St Kitts with a cargo of bale goods.

Built: 1783 Where Built: Southampton Armament: 16 x 6pdr cannon Owner: Miles and Co. Master: Hodzard (2)(4)(6); Robert Bagg (5) Crew: 21 Passengers: 2 Lives Lost: 5 Date of Loss Qualifier: R `The GOLDEN GROVE, Hodzard, from London to St. Kitts, is wrecked on Portland Beach. Very little of the cargo saved. (2)(4) Sherbourne November 30th: The GOLDEN GROVE of London, Robert Bagg master, bound to St Christophers laden with bale goods. The master, two passengers and two boys drowned. Lieutenant-Colonel Ross and seventeen men saved. Ship went to pieces. Lost on Portland Beach. (5) Vessel had departed Gravesend on 08-NOV-1795. (6) `The worst instance, within historic knowledge, both of wreck and wrecking on the Dorset coast occurred in 1795. Rear-Admiral Christian with a squadron of men-of-war and upwards of 200 transports with 16,000 troops on board left St. Helens for the West Indies on 16 November; on the 17th they were caught west of Portland in a terrible gale, and on the 18th six transports went to pieces on the Chesil beach where 234 dead bodies were immediately thrown up, a number increased to 1,600 by the 26th. The worst part of the story was the behaviour of the people ashore, mostly Portlanders, who are always praying for wrecks on their coast and whose whole attention was devoted to plunder instead of the rescue of the drowning. They were soon reinforced by a considerable mob from different parts solely intent on plunder, until soldiers brought on the scene dispersed them with volleys of musketry... `...A very little while after another mast appeared obliquely over the stony barrier...it was that of the GOLDEN GROVE Merchant Ship, which was stranded. In her, Dr Stevens, of St. Kitts, and a Mr. Burrows, were lost; Lieutenant Colonel Ross escaped to the shore. These ships were stranded on a part of the bank not far from the Passage-House, almost in the very same spot where the ZENOBIA, a French frigate, went to pieces in the year 1763... (Taken from Ann. Register, Account of an Eyewitness; Smith (Charlotte), Narrative of the Loss, and c. Lond. 1796.) (Found under the heading of `Details of a few shipwrecks and Dorset Maritime History on this website) (7) [NB: There appears to have been a gale over the 17th-18th November, from the number of other ships wrecked over that period, and from the mention of vessels `safe in Weymouth and Portland Roads after the gale, so it is likely this loss also occurred during this period. This would make it one of the six ships reported on Chesil Beach as reported in the entry for the THOMAS (q v )] Additional sources cited in United Kingdom Shipwreck Index: Gentlemen's Magazine 1795 p964

Record last edited

Nov 29 2007 11:22AM