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Shipwrecks
Shipwrecks as History
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One of the greatest known concentrations of historic sunken ships lies off the shore of south-east England, particularly where it borders the English Channel, one of the busiest seaways in the world. The enormous wealth of historical information preserved in these wrecks is incalculable, and they form part of the ’new frontier’ of archaeological exploration – underwater. |
There are records of about a thousand ships having been swallowed by the Goodwin Sands off east Kent alone, and many of these will be well preserved since the geology of the region especially favours the preservation of shipwrecks, which are often buried in soft sands and silts. Wrecks as old as Roman and prehistoric times, are known, but the bulk of discovered wrecks date from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
The shipwreck details and pictures are taken from Peter Marsden’s booklet ‘The Historic Shipwrecks of South East England’. The booklet is available from The Shipwreck Heritage Centre, Rock-a-Nore Road, Hastings, Sussex. TN34 3DW. Tel: 0142 4437452
| Ships are the buildings of the sea, and it is by studying their surviving remains as wrecks that we can better understand and illustrate the history of mankind’s long association with the sea. This is particularly so in the south-east region where there is an exceptional shoreline concentration of historic shipwrecks that can be visited by non-divers at suitable low tides. It lies in East Sussex between Camber in the east and Cuckmere Haven, just west of Beachy Head in the west, where there are preserved the substantial remains of large ships of the seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This range of age for ships visible at low tide has no known parallel in Britain, and may be unique in Europe. Visitors can trace in at least seven wrecks the development of ships from wood and sail to steel and engine. The extraordinary nature of this group is underlined by the fact that two of the three protected historic wreck sites that are visible at low tide in the whole of the British Isles, lie in this area. |
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The Historic Shipwrecks of East Sussex
Until recently the sites were plundered for the valuables that they contain, but nowadays, with two of the shipwrecks protected by law as historic monuments, it is appreciated that they are as much worthy of preservation, research and display as are historic sites on land. |
This group of maritime casualties may be unique in Europe, for nowhere else between the tides is such a concentration and range of age and variety known to exist, and it is hoped that in the future these parts of the tidal zone of East Sussex will be officially adopted as a conservation area.
The geology of the zone, which has been primarily responsible for the excellent state of preservation of the shipwrecks, is equally important and unusual for it provides a fascinating window on the coastline in the distant past. In particular it concentrates around the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century wrecks in the Hastings area, and includes the extensive remains of a now-submerged prehistoric forest 5000 years old, and rocks of about 120 million years old which contain important traces of dinosaurs.
