Shipwrecks of the Solent by Richard M. Jones
When I decided to write Shipwrecks of the Solent it soon became apparent that the hardest part for me would be to decide which wrecks to talk about. The Solent itself encompasses the areas around the northern side of the Isle of Wight as well as the mouth of Portsmouth Harbour and Southampton Water, areas inundated with ocean liners, warships, ferries and pleasure craft. Needless to say over the years there have been hundreds of incidents and accidents, many of them being hugely tragic.
The most famous of these is that of the Mary Rose, the warship of King Henry VIII that set sail on 19 July 1545 in order to fend off the line of French vessels that were seen off the Isle of Wight and were now posing a threat very close to land. With the King himself at the nearby Southsea Castle, the 35-year-old Mary Rose sailed from Portsmouth and all of a sudden heeled over and sank much to the horror of those watching. Nobody really knows how many people died that day, but the fact that the anti-boarding nets had trapped almost everybody on board save for the people in the rigging and sails, the death toll is estimated to be at least 450 with only around 35 survivors. Salvage attempts failed and the ship stayed where she was until the mid-1800s when divers located her, raised a few cannons and then once again she was forgotten about. It was the effort of Alexander McKee that finally located her in the 1970s and after a huge operation and a ton of money pumped into the project, the entire ship was raised (or what was left of it) on 11 October 1982. King Henry VIII watched her sink, the future King Charles III watched her raised 437 years later. The Mary Rose is now on public display surrounded by the artefacts that have been preserved by experts over the last forty years.
Two other historic vessels that have been designated important sites, the first is HMS Royal George which rolled over at anchor in 1782 after a mistake was made in trying to roll the ship slightly to carry out maintenance. The sinking killed around 800 people which today is still in the Guinness Book of Records as Britain’s worst sea disaster in home waters. The wreck was later blown up as a navigation hazard. The second historic shipwreck is HMS Invincible, taken from the French and run aground near Southsea in 1758, she was relocated by a fisherman in the 1970s and now is one of several shipwrecks that have been digitally scanned and is available to view in 3D online.
Fast forward many years and a collision in April 1908 between the warship HMS Gladiator and the liner St Paul led to the warship rolling over close to where the wreck of the Royal George went down. Laid on her side, the disaster cost the lives of 28 sailors, many of the bodies never being recovered. The wreck was eventually salvaged and scrapped.
A more modern-day tragedy occurred in January 1990 when the cargo ship Flag Theofano was heading to Southampton after sailing from France, but the weather was so bad she was told to go to anchor until the following morning. The next day the Southampton pilot was heading out to St Helens Road anchorage to bring the ship in, but she was nowhere to be seen. Assuming the ship had headed back out to sea to ride out the storm a radio call turned up nothing. Then bodies and wreckage started to come ashore as the horror of what had occurred overnight became apparent – the Flag Theofano had capsized so quickly that the 19 crew had no chance to radio for help or escape from the ship. There were no survivors.
Two almost-shipwrecks made the headlines that provided the media with some light-hearted poking but could so easy have been major disasters. On 7 November 1999 the banana boat Dole America left Portsmouth harbour and dropped off the pilot in the Solent heading out to sea. Within minutes the ship had struck the lighthouse at Nab Tower and seriously damaged the ship, leaving a huge gash down the side of the vessel and only a very quick reaction prevented the ship from sinking. Needless to say the press loved the fact that a ship hit a lighthouse and the news reports later reflected what turned out to be a bit of damage and a huge embarrassment.
For the Hoegh Osaka in 2015 this turned out to have a surprising ending when the ship starting heeling over soon after sailing from Southampton carrying thousands of vehicles. The car carrier was beached on Bramble Bank listing at 65 degrees and salvage teams worked for three weeks to attempt to bring the ship back to a normal state and get her back into port. Incredibly the salvage was a success and the Hoegh Osaka was once again back in Southampton where the owners were happy to see that very few of the vehicles on board had suffered any damage and were simply driven off.
This is only a snapshot of the dramas and disasters that have blighted the small area between the southern coast of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, there is so much history down there that it could keep authors and historians busy for many more years to come.
Shipwrecks of the Solent by Richard M. Jones is available for purchase now.