Shipwrecks and other disasters

Shipwrecks:
Timeline

This list largely involves vessels wrecked off Jersey and the Minquiers and Ecrehous. Another list in Wikipedia includes shipwrecks elsewhere in Channel Island waters

1414 Great Spanish ship wrecked off La Corbière, casks of wine washed up in St Ouen's Bay
1484 Five Spanish ships wrecked on Les Quennevais sands
1495 Spanish ship with cargo of wine wrecked off La Corbière
1668 Archangel, of Venice, commanded by Giacomo de Guidin, went aground off Jersey
1676 Ten drowned when boat belonging to Jean Le Huquet struck the Reposeur des Pierres
1800 HMS Havick
1800 HMS Havick and 18-gun HMS Pelican foundered in St Aubin's Bay on 9 November. Pelican was refloated but Havick remained as a wreck.
1802 Frigate HMS Pomone, captured from the French in 1794, struck a rock in St Aubin's Bay on 23 September. Although refloated, she was declared a total loss.
1803 HMS Determinee struck rock near Noirmont Point and sank. Seventeen men, women and children from the 81st Regiment of Foot were lost.
1804 Severn, flagship of Philippe d'Auvergne, wrecked in October storm in Grouville Bay. Her crew were rescued.
1805 Adventure, on a voyage from Malta to London, was wrecked off Jersey.
1805 HMS Pigmy was wrecked in St Aubin's Bay on 9 August. She grounded after pilot Nicholas de Leree mistook the depth of water over a reef of rocks. Boats from HMS Alcmene, Albacore, Conquest, and Eclipse took her people off.
1814 French vessel Arinus Marinus was on a voyage from Rotterdam to Batavia when she was driven ashore at Gorey on 29 December
1815 transport ship Leicester was driven on to a rock off the coast and wrecked on 7 January
1815 Wreck of La Balance off the Derouilles, on 23 March, with the loss of 36 of the 108 people on board. She was on a voyage from Cherbourg to Saint-Malo
1817 the ketch Pleasant Hill was wrecked on Jersey's coast on 17 December with the loss of one of her six crew. She was on a voyage from Seville, Spain, to London. Survivors were rescued by Minerva
1819 the UK ship Nimble struck rocks off Jersey and sank while on a voyage from Plymouth to Jersey on 14 September. Her crew were rescued
1822 the UK shop John and Robert was driven ashore on 31 March and wrecked on Jersey's north coast. She was on a voyage from New Brunswick to Liverpool
1823: Friendship was lost off Jersey on 1 November. On the same day Joseph and Jane was wrecked on the north coast on a voyage from Plymouth to Jersey. Her crew were rescued
1823 Siren foundered off Jersey on 4 November while on a voyage from Spain to Sweden. Three survivors were rescued
1825 the French cutter 1825 Fanny was en route from St Malo to Jersey on 7 January when she struck rocks behind Elizabeth Castle. Thirteen passengers and crew were saved and the National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck, founded the previous year, awarded three gold medals and a silver medal to the rescuers
1825 the Good Intent was driven ashore in Jersey and wrecked on 18 October. Her crew were rescued
1826 the UK ship Thetis struck rocks three nautical miles off the island on 20 July and foundered while on a voyage from Newcastle upon Tyne to Jersey
1826 Betsey and Jane
1826 Mail packet Hinchinbrook sank after striking rocks near Alderney
1826 Mail packet Sir Francis Freeling run down by Swedish vessel near Portland on 6 September with loss of nine crew and seven passengers
1826 General Brock
1827 the UK vessel Charlotte, on a voyage from Jamaica to London, was wrecked off Jersey on 1 December. All 14 people on board were rescued
1827 the Guernsey vessel Neptune was heading for her home port when she was wrecked off Jersey on 8 December.
1828 the UK vessel Fanny was wrecked in St Aubin's Bay with the loss of at least three lives on 1 January.
1829 the UK vessel Crescent was wrecked on 6 March while on a voyage from London to Jersey
1829 the UK ship Milo was wrecked on the Ecrehous while on a voyage from Dublin to Memel, Prussia on 3 October. Her crew were rescued
1830 Quixote
831 the French ship Virginie sprang a leak and foundered off Jersey on 10 January while on a voyage to Granville. All on board were rescued
1831 the UK ship Duke of Wellington sank at Jersey on 12 January
1833 the Netherlands ship Louisa Barbara struck a rock and was abandoned by her crew on 2 September. She was later taken to Jersey by Customs ship Sylvia. Louisa Barbara was on a voyage from Philadelphia, USA, to Amsterdam
1834 the UK ship Annabella struck a rock and sank at Jersey on 21 October
1834 the UK brig Morpeth Castle was driven ashore in Rozel Bay while on a voyage from Newcastle upon Tyne to Jersey on 20 November
1835 the French vessel Actif was driven ashore in St Brelade's Bay while on a voyage from St Brieux to Bayonne on 26 October
1835 Juno
1842 Camilla, sunk off the Casquets January
1844 Cutter Laurel wrecked in Grouville Bay, 14 died on 30 July
1850 Polka wrecked on Minquiers on 16 September
1850 Superb wrecked on Minquiers on 24 September
1851 Cutter Ant wrecked on Pignonet rocks near Noirmont Point
1856 Amelia
1857 Ceres wrecked on voyage from Honduras to Jersey
1859 Express steamerwrecked off Corbiere
1861 ss Metropolis wrecked near Elizabeth Castle on 12 February
1863 Paris, wrecked outside St Helier on 28 July
1864 Jean Goujon
1866 the French ship Dinanais, sailing from Dinan, ran aground on the St Ouen coast on 22 January
1867 the French brig Blayais ran aground on the Minquiers on 12 January. The crew escaped with lifeboats
1867 the French sloop Edouard was lost by hitting a Minquiers rock on 5 February
1870 Harvey and Westaway Monuments, Mailship Ps Normandy run down in dense fog by ss Mary of Grimsby on 17 March
1872 Norwegian barque Isabella Northcote aground off the Ecrehous on 2 November. Crew rescued
1873 Waverley wrecked in Little Russell Passage, Guernsey, in fog on 6 June
1873: the barque Clarisse was lost in the Minquiers on 22 November during a trip from Bordeaux to her home port of Granville. There was only one survivor
1875 Havre wrecked in Little Russell Passage, Guernsey, in fog on 16 February
1876 the French lugger Celinia ran aground at the foot of Elizabeth Castle and broke up
1879 Reindeer damaged striking the Albert Pier on 14 January
1881 ss Caledonia lost on Oyster Rock off St Helier Harbour on 19 February
1881 the UK barque rigged vessel Bothalwood hit rocks at St Ouen's Bay sailing from Cartagena to Leith. No crew were lost
1881 the Caledonia, formerly Hogarth. Carrying mail and passengers from Southampton to the islands, was wrecked off Oyster Rock, just outside St Helier Harbour on 19 February
1884 Caesarea, sunk after collision with ss Strathesk off Cap de la Hague on way to St Malo on 27 June
1884 Sloop Louis wrecked on 9 January
1884 GDT wrecked at Millbrook on 26 January
1884 the Guernsey vessel Echo was overwhelmed off Corbiere and the crew all drowned
1887 Brighton, wrecked in Little Russell Passage, Guernsey, en route from Weymouth in January
1888 Sailing ship Wonder lost seven miles off La Corbière
1890 Lugger Grace de Dieu wrecked on Mangeuse Reef
1892 Ibex, Capt Le Feuvre, struck rocks in Portelet Bay on way to St Helier
1895 Diana, January
1898 Channel Queen lost off Guernsey on 1 February
1899 ss Stella wrecked off Casquets
1900 ss Ibex wrecked off Guernsey on 5 January
1900 ss Rosegull sank off La Corbière on 5 December
1904 Conqueror left Newfoundland on 8 November with a cargo of cod and was never heard of again
1905 Hilda struck rocks off St Malo with the loss of 128 lives
1915 Guernsey, wrecked on French coast in April
1917 The USS Summer sank in Channel Island waters in 1917 after being torpedoed
1918 The South-Western sank in the English Channel after being torpedoed
1923 on departing St Helier harbour, the passenger ferry and mailboat Caesarea struck the Pignonet Rock, off Noirmont Point, and was holed. Her captain decided to return to port, but she later struck the Oyster Rock and was beached at St Helier. All 370 passengers were rescued. She was refloated on 20 July and taken to England for repairs.
1923 Converted steam trawler Unicorn wrecked off Plymouth en route to Jersey. Captain A G Bisson and his chief and second engineers were drowned. The captain's brother, A G Bisson, and the ship's cook survived
1925 the French cargo shipAtala, formerly a US minesweeper, struck rocks off La Rocque and sank. All 15 crew survived
1926 ss Ribbledale was wrecked at l'Etacquerel Point, near Bouley Bay, when en route from London in ballast on 27 December, after dragging anchor in a storm
1932 Great Western Railway's St Patrick struck a rock in fog off La Moye on 5 August. The 314 passengers were rescued by Duke of Normandy, Isle of Sark and St Julien. St Patrick was taken in tow to St Helier harbour for temporary repairs
1935 the cargo ship Silvonia struck a rock and sank off Jersey on 6 May. The crew were rescued
1935: the passenger ferry Princess Ena caught fire and sank ten nautical miles (19 km) south of Jersey on 4 August. The crew were rescued by Duke of Normandy and St Julien
1936 the Dutch coaster Schelde ran aground on the Pierres de Lecq rocks 5 nautical miles north of Jersey on 22 November. All crew survived
1942 the German naval vessel Diamant, which originally sailed under a Belgian flag, was wrecked on the Dogs Nest rocks outside St Helier, on 20 September, carrying essential commodities such as footwear and cheese for the civilian population
1942 The ancient Rhine houseboat Kromwijk, taken over in 1940 and converted in Rotterdam, was working for the Organisation Todt, carrying a cargo of bricks. It was attacked by Allied aircraft and sunk south of Jersey on 7 December
1943 the Dutch cargo ship Schokland, under German Navy command, carrying sacks of cement and iron girders and 284 troops returning from leave, sank after hitting a reef a mile off Portelet Bay on 5 January. 106 of the troops, who were being transported in a hold, died
1943 the German Navy motor schooner Helma, carrying a cargo of potatoes, was sunk off Jersey by RAF bombers on 27 April
1943 the cargo ship Arnold Maersk, under German command, carrying a cargo of 250 lb bombs, was wrecked on Grune aux Dardes on 22 May
1944 the German cargo ship Bizon, en route to Guernsey, was sunk off La Corbière on 8 May, by MTBs 91, 92, 227 and 229 ( Free French Naval Forces). It was reported that the MTB's fired on the survivors, clinging to straw bales
1944 The German patrol boat Seydlitz was believed sunk by allied motor torpedo boats west of Jersey on 19 June
1949 the British motor-schooner Hanna, built in 1915, on voyage from Plymouth to Jersey with a cargo of lime on 19 November, was wrecked off L'Etacq, She was a total loss and there are still engine remains of her on the rocks today
1950 mv Killurin wrecked on Sillette Reef off Noirmont Point
1951 mv John V laden with potatoes, overturns off Elizabeth Castle breakwater on 3 July
1955 British Rail cargo boats Winchester and Haslemere severely damaged in collision on 2 December
1961: the Dutch coaster mv Heron, sailing from Jersey to Portsmouth, with a cargo of tomatoes, sank off Jersey on 16 September. Of her 11 crew, six were rescued by Cranborne and two by Port du Bouc
1964 Guernsey Coast cargo ship sinks after collision in fog with Liberian Catcher off Cap de la Hague on 6 August
1979 Al Osman freighter rescued from rocks at l'Etacq on 11 February
1995: the Channiland catamaran ferry, travelling from Jersey to Sark with 307 passengers and crew on board, hit a rock known as Le Frouquieat close to Corbière Lighthouse and began to take on water. The passengers were evacuated to life rafts, with around 50 suffering injuries. The vessel was recovered and initially beached in St Aubin's bay, before being refitted and returned to service

Until the advent of commercial flying in the 1930s, Jersey relied exclusively on the sea for its links with the outside world, and the volume of maritime traffic over the years, coupled with the difficulty of navigating the rock-strewn waters around the Channel Islands, inevitably resulted in a large number of shipwrecks, including disastrous events in which many lives were lost.

Statistics

An index to reference material contained in the Lord Coutanche Library of La Société Jersiaise includes 44 headings, but this represents just a fraction of the number on record. A website being developed by Jersey historian Doug Ford indicates that almanacs published by Jersey newspapers from 1836 to 1882 show that there were 533 Jersey registered vessels lost at sea during just these 46 years.

Three-masted

23 ships
36 barques
1 schooner

A total of 60

Two-masted

71 brigs
72 schooner brigs
8 brigantines
161 schooners
8 dandys
5 ketches

A total of 325

Single masted

145 cutters

Miscellaneous

2 steamers
1 unclassified

Major shipwrecks

Stella

On 30 March 1899 the London and South-West Region passenger steamer Stella hit the Casquets rocks off Alderney and sank with loss of 105 lives. A further 112 were saved, including 23 crew. The disaster has become known as the Channel Islands' 'Titanic', but it could have been much worse, because the ship had a capacity of over 700 passengers.

Hilda

The Hilda, which had operated Channel Island routes before the Stella, sailed from Southampton for St Malo late on 17 November 1905 under the command of Captain William Gregory. She had 103 passengers and 28 crew on board. After negotiating Channel Island waters successfully she struck rocks outside St Malo the following night while attempting to enter the harbour in a snowstorm and heavy seas. There were only six survivors.

Roebuck

The Roebuck struck rocks in St Brelade's Bay in thick fog on 19 July 1911. The sea was so calm that there were no casualties, and the vessel was eventually refloated and brought to St Helier Harbour.

Express

The wreck of the Express off Corbiere on 20 September 1859 was captured in a painting by Jersey's foremost artist of the day, Philip Ouless

Fanny Breslauer

The Fanny Breslauer was a brigantine owned by the Jersey cod business Robin, Collas and Company in Canada. She was abandoned in the Atlantic when trying to make it back to Jersey after the death of her master and other crew members in a storm off Halifax. What remained of her crew were rescued by another vessel, which later found the Fanny Breslauer and took her in tow back to Milford Haven. She eventually returned to Jersey and sailed again on the North Atlantic route to Gaspé.

Polka and Superb

While standing in for the Superb on the Jersey to St Malo service on 15 September 1850 the tug Polka became swamped and sank off the Minquiers, with all passengers and crew safely landed and then rescued. Two days later the Superb was back in service under the same captain and when the captain was persuaded to show the passengers the place where the Polka came to grief, the Superb hit rocks, and this time 20 passengers lost their lives and those who survived spent 24 hours on the Minquiers rocks.

Full story

Cuckoo

The Cuckoo struck rocks outside St Helier Harbour on 15 May 1850 while ferrying new garrison troops from a larger vessel.

Caesarea I

The first of three vessels to bear the name Caesarea sank off Cap de la Hague in 1884 after colliding with the Stratesk. One passenger died.

Messenger

From Chronique de Jersey, 12 January 1870. Translated from French

"We read in the Shipping Gazette, Plymouth, 6 January: The steamer Clotilda, Capt Ranton, coming from St Michel, has landed here today Capt Pinel and two sailors of the crow of the cutter Messenger, of Jersey, 120 tons, abandoned at sea on 22 December 200 miles west of Ouessant. The Messenger left Sebro, York Island, on the west coast of Africa, with a cargo of palm nuts, heading for Liverpool. Since 6 December the cutter had to fight with no break against violent storms from all points of the compass, principally north-east and south-east. On the 19th the boat was hit by an enormous wave, which released the cargo and filled the hold with water. The crew remained on board until the 22nd, when they were obliged to abandon ship. Captain Taylor, of the steamer Geneva, heading from Glasgow to St Michel, came across the schooner eight hours after it was abandoned. The sea was very dangerous and there was only one oar on the dinghy which overturned as soon as it was launched. Captain Taylor threw lifebelts and the six crew were all saved and taken to St Michel. Messenger belonged to Le Maistre and Company and was apparently not insured with Jersey Lloyd's Insurance Society for Shipping."

Accidents involving Post Packets

Gallery

Click on any image to see a larger version

The Amelia, wrecked in 1856
The Arnold Maersk sank after going aground on the Grune aux Dardes on 22 May 1943. Built in 1914, the ship was owned by the Maersk Line and, from 1940-41 by the Vichy Government of France
Today's Arnold Maersk - contrast this ship with the previous vessel of the same name
ss Atala on rocks in 1925
Islanders flock to see Atala stranded on the beach
Shipwreck of an earlier Caesarea in 1923
Caesarea aground off Elizabeth Castle in 1923
The Caesarea wrecked in 1923
The Express wreck at La Corbiere
The wreck of the Express by Ouless - 1859
ss Fairway hit the pierhead in 1897
Fanny Breslauer
Wreck of the GDT
The Wreck of the GDT in 1885
Hanna, 1949
The wreck of the Resolute
St Malo beached after hitting rocks at La Corbière in 1995
St Malo beached after hitting rocks at La Corbière in 1995
St Malo back in St Helier Harbour
St Malo beached after hitting rocks at La Corbière in 1995
St Malo beached in St Aubin's bay on 18 April 1995
Tugs manoeuvre the stricken St Malo off the rocks
The wreck of the Superb on the Minquiers
Superb
The wreck of the St Patrick in 1932
Minesweeper M343, sunk off Jersey in 1944
Atala
Atala
USS Summer, 1917
HMS Cuckoo
Crew of the Havre rescued
Constantia on the Casquets in 1967
HMS Charybdis, wrecked in World War Two
An attempt to rescue Jersey Star outside Rozel Harbour in 1959
Artist's impression of the loss of HMS Victory in 1744
1915 newspaper report of the sinking of Welsh Girl
1810 report on the wreck of the Success
In 1787 Gazette de l'Ile de Jersey reported the loss of L'Expedition off the coast of Spain. The vessel was taking on water when the pumps were blocked by the cargo of nuts and the ship foundered
Report of the 1828 wreck of The Neptune
An 1863 newspaper report of the loss of Prince of the Seas. The vessel, a 380-ton barque, was built in Sunderland eight years earlier and was owned by John de Caen, of Jersey. Skippered by Capt Le Gresley, the vessel was en route from London to Algoa on 17 April when it sank 12 miles west of Cap Recife. The captain and three crew members were saved but the mate and six other crewmen drowned. It is unclear which Capt Le Gresley was involved. Eleven are listed as Jersey sea captains in John Jean's definitive work Jersey Sailing Ships, but none of them are associated with the loss of Prince of the Seas
The contents of the brigantine James and John, which was wrecked off Noirmont in March 1804, were offered for sale