THE WRECK OF THE STEAMER "VECTIS" February 5th 1912
"land diving..? for treasure!!"..no need to get wet!!
If you feel like a little treasure hunting, but don't want to get wet..or can't swim!!...try the wreck of the Vectis at Andurn Point in South Devon, UK. A few miles east of the City of Plymouth, 15 mins east on foot of the popular sandy beach at Bovisand, or 20 mins west on foot of Heybrook Bay, its really easy and safe to get to by all members of the family, old and young.
My preference is to park at Heybrook Bay, park in the lay by at the foot of the hill, just downhill from the Eddystone Inn public house. Get out of the car and walk east, that's toward Plymouth, you'll walk past a few houses overlooking the sea, then through some bushes, then on to the coastal path, ..then on your left you will see a large and beautiful rocky reef, Renney Rocks, ideal for a kids rockpooling safari....keep walking along this path ...watch out for a few sheer 50 foot sheer drops on your left side...until you can see a large tall white navigational beacon. Approach this along the footpath, and just under it, or a tad before it, leave the footpath, drop down any of the footpaths, about 10 feet or so drop, easy angle, no dangers..just wear stout footwear....then get onto the rocks and look around.
Look into caves, pools, cracks and crevices..any nook and crannies. Its best to do this for one hour before spring low tide, and one hour after spring low tide, giving you 2 hours to search - more than enough....NB. spring tides occur twice a month and are very low, low tides...and also very high, high tides.
Winter is often best when the sea has thrown a little of its secrets onto the shoreline, but the finds on this page were found in early September.
With a bit of luck you'll find fire bricks from her boilers, floor tiles from her galley and heads, coal from her bunkers, and lots and lots of coloured glass fragments, bits of old beer bottles, fragments of decorated plate, ..sometimes electrical insulators, and if you're really lucky, earthenware inkwells. Soon you will have found a few artefacts. You may also see at dead low tide, large iron pieces fused into the rocks...or even this huge iron link.
Check out the aerial photos below..(taken in 1980), you have Heybrook on the right, Bovisand on the left, and the white navigation light is easily seen, gives you an idea of the layout of the area. The whole place is very beautiful as these photos show.....1.......2.......3.......4.......5.....6.....7......8, - the Palmerston Fortifications at Bovisand can be seen, as well as the current sad state of Renney and Lentney Coastal Defence Batteries, whose land has now be sold by the MOD for private development. What will happen here is unknown, the underground structures remain....but for how long?
The Vectis was a two masted steamer of 907 tons, owned by John Hill of Sunderland. February 5th, 1912, saw her putting to sea out of Plymouth after unlading her cargo of coal at the Cattewater wharves. Just outside the Breakwater, her steering failed and in no time at all the tide and wind had her hard up on the rocks at Andurn point. She went right up onto them, remaining upright, see the photo at top of this page. The crew abandoned, and the vessel was left. Despite striking at low tide, all efforts to float her off on the high waters failed, and the Christmas Hurricane of 1912, finished her off.
She vanished from sight and from most peoples memories.
Many other vessels have come to grief in this area, notably the Nepaul, which was lost in 1890 on the Shagstone, that's the small bit of rock stocking up from the sea with a beacon on top...it`s still got a beacon today, the Vectis is seen at far left, high and dry on the rocks.
To read more of the Vectis, and other Devon shipwrecks, check out Peter Mitchell's site at www.submerged.co.uk where there is much to read on line, free of charge, or you can buy his videos and books, all on a theme of local maritime history, above and below the waves. They are superb.
