Gordon Le Pard

For many thousands of years the people of Dorset have used the sea, it has provided valuable resources such as fish and salt as well as a route for people and goods. At different times, different resources have been exploited, different goods moved, different routes used. Evidence of the resources exploited, goods moved and the vessels that carried them can be found on the seabed.

Since the last Ice Age, the relative sea level has risen considerably. As a result ancient sites, once on land, now lie beneath the waters, which can also cover former land surfaces, the source of much information on the past ecology of Britain and which provide the principal source of evidence for modern climate change and sea level rise.

Relative sea level refers to the sea level as determined in respect to the adjacent land surface. Changes to this level can be caused by vertical movement of the land as well as changes in the absolute height of the water level. (See Coastal Form Processes)

Maritime Archaeology

Maritime archaeology is a comparatively modern discipline, being little more than fifty years old. It can be much more difficult, dangerous and time consuming than terrestrial archaeology. However it is necessary to go underwater because only there can the story of our relationship with the sea be understood. In addition new light can be thrown on terrestrial archaeology.

Underwater objects are frequently better preserved than on land. Organic materials, such as wood and leather, will decay quickly if buried on terrestrial sites, but can be preserved for millennia when buried in submarine sediments.

A bottle recovered from the wreck of the Earl of Abergavenny, which sank in Weymouth bay in 1805, contained 120 cherries pickled in brandy. The flesh was well preserved, the fruit still had the scent of cherries.

There is one important difference between maritime and terrestrial archaeological recording, in that maritime archaeologists will record potential archaeological sites. This is where ships are known to have been wrecked from documentary or other sources, but of which no trace has yet been found. Maritime archaeological sites can be broadly divided into four categories; wrecks, single finds, structures and submerged landscapes.

Wrecks

In the past two thousand years, 2000 shipwrecks have been recorded as having taken place off the Dorset Coast. The actual numbers of wrecks is certainly considerably higher as, before the nineteenth century, reports are very patchy. Even since then the sinking of small vessels, without loss of life, would frequently escape notice in the local press.

Nearly five hundred wrecks have been located, and undoubtedly many more remain to be found. They include not only ships, but submarines, aircraft and even a group of amphibious tanks lost in Poole Bay.

In 1943 experiments were made to make tanks amphibious. The test vehicle was the light ‘Valentine’ tank. These were fitted with a ‘Duplex Drive’ (DD) which enabled power to be switched between the tracks and a propeller. The tank also had a ’skirt’ that was raised round the side of the vehicle to give it sufficient freeboard to float. Eight of the test vehicles sank in Poole Bay, but despite these losses the experiments were a success and DD tanks proved their worth on the Normandy beaches at D-Day.

Wrecks are important archaeological sites for several reasons:

They provide firm evidence of the history of ship design. Until the eighteenth century measured plans of ships are very rare, and even after this date the ships frequently differed considerably from the written record. During the nineteenth and early twentieth there was great innovation in ship design and technology, so that wrecks are often the only surviving examples of some types of ship.

In 1914, at the outbreak of the First World War the Admiralty realised that the southern entrance through the Portland Breakwater could not easily be protected from submarine torpedo attack. The easiest, and most effective way of sealing this entrance was to sink a redundant vessel, a ‘block ship’, across the entrance. It was decided to use the old battleship H.M.S. Hood which had been built in 1891, and served for many years with the Mediterranean squadron. After the launch of H.M.S. Dreadnought in 1908, H.M.S. Hood, along with the rest of the world’s battleships, had been made obsolescent. Instead of going to the breaker's yard she was sunk across the entrance in November 1914, and is now one of the best preserved British ‘pre-dreadnought’ battleships in the world.

Wrecks are 'time capsules', since everything found on a shipwreck should date from before the sinking of the vessel, and was probably in use at the time. Finds from wrecks can provide valuable information on many subjects, from armament manufacture to dress design.

Gunflints, used to provide the spark which ignited the charge in flintlock weapons, were produced in vast numbers during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Two types were made, ‘wedge’ flints produced from a flint flake and ‘platform’ flints which were made from a prepared blade of flint. It has been claimed that the two types were produced at different times, ‘wedge’ preceding ‘platform’ .

The Earl of Abergavenny, which sank in Weymouth Bay in January 1805 was carrying many thousands of gunflints for the East India Company’s Army in India. Both types, ‘wedge’ and ‘platform’ are found, with the platform making up approximately two thirds of the total. This indicates that in 1804, when the ship was loaded, the two types of gunflint were in active use. Indeed it is easy to imagine soldiers in barracks earnestly debating the advantages or otherwise of the two sorts.

Engraving of the sinking of the Earl of Abergavenny in 1805 (DCC).

Single Finds

These are objects which do not appear to be associated with a wreck or structure. They might indicate the site of a previously unknown wreck, they may have been lost overboard, or they may be the result of some other activity.

In December 1942, five experimental ‘Bouncing Bombs’, designed by the brilliant engineer Barnes Wallis, were tested on the Fleet lagoon in Dorset. He had been given permission by the Air Ministry to build and test six dummy bombs, and according to the official history of 617 Squadron, the ‘Dam Busters’, one broke up on impact whilst four more bounced along the water, the sixth was never dropped. In the autumn of 2000 the spindle of one of the bouncing bombs was found in the Fleet, another was found early in 2001: other examples have also been recovered. In fact more bombs have come out of the Fleet than (officially) went into it. So what happened? It seems that after early failures Barnes Wallis was in danger of running out of test bombs so he fiddled his results, built and tested as many bombs as was necessary to prove his idea, and only reported the ‘right’ number of bombs. This case illustrates how archaeology can add new information to an, apparently, well recorded, fairly recent, historical event.

Structures

For the purposes of maritime archaeology a structure is defined as: any man-made feature or archaeological site that is now to be found in the intertidal zone, or below high water mark.

Structures can be divided into several categories.

There are those that were originally built completely below high water mark. These are rare and are generally unlike any sites found on land and provide important evidence of the uses made of the intertidal and submarine environment.

At the north-west end of the Fleet, just south of the Abbotsbury Swannery, the Lagoon is crossed by a submerged causeway. This was built below water to enable wagons to ford the Fleet and reach Chesil Beach, where the fishermen could load their catch directly into the wagons, instead of having to tranship their fish in smaller vessels across the Fleet, and load the wagons on the landward shore. Its date is, as yet, unknown but is suspected to date from the late Middle Ages.

Then there are those that were built below low water mark but were intended to project above high water mark. These include quays and port structures as well as sea walls and other coastal defence structures.

In the 1950's curious submerged stone structures in the south west corner of Poole Harbour were discovered. They became known as the Green Island Causeway as they were thought to be a link from Green Island to the mainland. Apart from an initial survey by a party of Boy Scouts in 1959 nothing more was done on the site until the Poole Harbour Heritage Project began work here in 1999.

The project uncovered two stone structures. One was 160 metres long and between eight and ten metres wide running out from Cleavel Point on the mainland, the other 55 metres projecting from Green Island, with a 70 metre gap between. Investigation suggests that, rather than being a causeway, the stone structures are the remains of two harbour piers. Timbers recovered from the mainland pier have been radiocarbon dated to about 300 BC, the middle Iron Age, making it the oldest constructed port in North West Europe.

Much of the land adjoining the River Frome east of Wareham was reclaimed in the late seventeenth century. The reclamation banks have been much altered over the years, though it is possible to see their original form in the remains of a failed drainage attempt in the Fleet. In 1666, a wall was built to try and drain a large bay at Herbury near Langton Herring. This failed, but the foundations of the stone wall and earth embankment can still be seen at low tide. In 1630, there was an attempt to drain the whole of the Fleet. This was partially successful, but failed after a few months. No trace has yet been found of the dam that was built to try to drain the Fleet lagoon.

Finally, there are sites, which were originally constructed above high water mark, but have been inundated through sea level changes or coastal erosion. These are generally similar to sites found on land, but can be better preserved and provide important additional evidence through the survival of organic material.

At the south west end of the Fleet Lagoon, an Iron Age salt production site has been discovered in the intertidal zone. It can be dated from associated pottery to about 100 BC. Unfortunately the excavators failed to record the level of the hearth, so it is impossible to say with any accuracy, how far the sea level has risen in the Fleet over the past 2100 years.

On the northern shore of Brownsea Island, a small Roman site was discovered below high water mark. Investigation of this site led to the discovery of fragments of wooden furniture, preserved in the waterlogged sediment, but also provided firm evidence of the rise in sea level of at least 2.7 metres since AD 300.

Submerged Landscapes

Since the end of the last Ice Age the relative sea level has risen substantially, inundating many areas of former dry land. These areas are important as they may not only provide information about the rise in sea level, but may possibly contain well-preserved organic material.

There are several areas of particular importance off the Dorset coast. Poole bay covers the drowned valley of the former Solent River. Poole harbour not only covers the upper reaches of the Solent River but also includes sites inundated by sea level rise within the past three millennia. Chesil beach and the Fleet cover deposits dating from the early post-glacial to Roman.

Blocks of peat are often thrown onto Chesil beach, particularly in the Abbotsbury – West Bexington section. They have probably come from peat beds that now lie under the sea. In 2000, a block of peat containing bones of European Beaver was recovered. This provides unusual evidence for the past environment of the Fleet: as Beavers will not tolerate brackish water, the peat was laid down in a freshwater marsh. Other samples of peat that have been found on the beach have been dated to about 4000 BC, which may indicate the Beaver’s approximate age.

Finally, there are areas known as ‘Submerged Forests’, where the remains of trees are occasionally revealed at low water. They have been recorded at Bournemouth, West Bay and Charmouth. Only at the latter has any recent work been done, giving a 12th century date for the site.

Protecting the Resource

On land, archaeological sites are protected by the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979, which empowers the government, through English Heritage, to schedule archaeological sites. In addition, Planning Policy Guidance Note 16 identifies how archaeological sites are to be treated in the planning process: this can require protection of sites, archaeological evaluation or excavation, as part of planning consent.

The National Monuments Act 2002 empowered English Heritage to operate in England’s territorial waters. It is expected that their role in Maritime Archaeology will increase in the next few years, as maritime archaeological sites are scheduled in the same way as terrestrial ones.
There are also several, often very specific, pieces of legislation that affect the maritime archaeological resource.

The Protection of Wrecks Act 1973 enables the Government to designate the wreck of a vessel which it considers should be protected from unauthorised interference because of its historical, archaeological or artistic importance; 47 sites in UK waters are currently designated. There are currently three protected wrecks in Dorset waters: the Studland Bay Wreck, a an early sixteenth century Spanish merchantman , the Swash Channel wreck, a late sixteenth century vessel lying at the entrance to Poole harbour and the West Bay wreck, a vessel dating to the late seventeenth or early eighteenth centuries lying off West Bay .

Protection of Military Remains Act 1986 allows for sites to be designated to prevent interference with human remains. This can be applied to any UK military vessel or aircraft, regardless of location, and foreign military vessels in UK waters. It covers all vessels or aircraft lost in military service after 4th August 1914, even if locations are unknown, and all military vessels and aircraft lost in service less than 200 years old. Wrecks can be designated as ‘Protected Places’, or ‘Controlled Sites’.
Where a wreck has been designed as a ‘controlled site’, no access of any sort is permitted without direct permission from the Ministry of Defence. However on a wreck designated as a ‘protected place’ diving is permitted on a ‘look but don’t touch’ principle. Only one vessel has been designated designated as a ‘controlled site' in Dorset’s waters, H.M.S. Formidable in Lyme Bay.

H.M.S. Formidable was a pre-dreadnought battleship which was proceeding down The Channel on 1 January 1915. Despite being warned of German submarines in the area, the Admiral failed to order evasive manoeuvres and the Formidable was torpedoed by U24, 547 men were lost. The wreck has now been designated as a controlled site. The survivors reached Lyme Regis in the ship’s boats. Several of the crew had died of exposure in the journey to safety and their bodies were laid out in a shed at the back of an inn. The pub’s dog sat beside one of the ‘corpses’ and refused to move: closer examination revealed that the man was still alive, and he later made a full recovery. The story of the dog, ‘Lassie’, became famous and crossed the Atlantic: when Hollywood made a film about a brave dog a few years later they chose the name ‘Lassie’ to commemorate the pub dog at Lyme.

The captain of the Formidable had a dog, which was not so fortunate. It drowned and was washed up near Abbotsbury. The body was buried in the Sub-tropical gardens, where a stone marks its grave.

Merchant Shipping Act 1995 states that any material brought to the surface must be declared to the Receiver of Wreck, whose aim is to determine the ownership of the object. The finder will always be compensated, either financially or by being allowed to keep the object. The Receiver aims to place all 'historical' finds (those over 100 years old) in museums or similar institutions.

There are also two significant voluntary codes of practice.

Code of Practice for Seabed Developers

The Joint Nautical Archaeology Policy Committee, in conjunction with other interested parties, has drawn up this non-statutory code. It aims to ensure that an archaeological assessment and evaluation is carried out prior to development, so that an archaeological site can be protected or excavated. This was updated in 2006 to include developments such as offshore wind farms.

ICOMOS Charter

The International Council on Monuments and Sites has drawn up a charter for the Protection and Management of the Underwater Cultural Heritage (1996) This aims to ensure the protection of underwater cultural sites, or their proper excavation, recording, conservation of the finds and publication. The UK is a member of ICOMOS.

In addition there is a voluntary scheme, the Adopt a Wreck Project, run by the Nautical Archaeological Society. This encourages recreational divers to take a serious interest in particular wrecks. The Dorset wrecks already adopted are;

Halsewell  - A British East Indiaman which was wrecked off the I sle of Purbeck on 6 th January 1786 . This was the first wreck adopted under the 'Adopt a Wreck' scheme.

Earl of Abergavenny - A British East Indiaman which sank in Weymouth Bay on 5 th February 1805 .

Black Hawk - A Second World War Liberty Ship which was torpedoed off Portland on 29 th December 1944 . The stern section sank, but the forward section was towed towards land finally sinking off Worbarrow Bay .

Countess of Erne - A nineteenth century paddle steamer, she ended her days as a coal hulk in Portland harbour, finally sinking on 16 th September 1935 .

Kyarra - A twin-screw passenger and cargo liner, built in 1903 that was torpedoed by German submarine UB-57 on 26 th May, 1918 . This is one of the most popular dive sites on the Dorset coast.

Aeolian Sky - A 10,715 ton Greek motor vessel that sank following a collision on 3 rd November 1979 .

Antler Wreck - An eighteenth century coasting vessel carrying stone, as well as a box of antlers, hence the name that lies on Hook Sands off the entrance to Poole Harbour.

Studland Bay Reef - A reef in Poole Bay that acts as a trap for objects washed around Poole Bay .

Valentine Tank - One of a group of amphibious tanks that sank in April 1944 whilst preparing for the D Day invasion of France .

Betsy Anna - Built on the Tyne in 1892 as the Ashington, she was wrecked on Prawl e Point in Devon . After undergoing temporary repairs she was under tow to Cowes when she sank in Poole Bay in October 1926. 

Salsette - A P&O liner specially built for a fast run between Britain and India . On 20 July 1917 she was torpedoed by the German submarine UB 40. She is still substantially intact, and was recently voted Britain 's best wreck dive.

U772 - A German U Boat probably sunk by HMCS Calgary on 30 December 1944 , shortly after U772 had torpedoed the Black Hawk.

Binnendijk - A Dutch steamer that hit a mine off Portland  on 7th Oct 1939 and sunk early in the morning of the 8th of October in Weymouth Bay . All the crew were saved

Unknown Coaster - This vessel lies alongside Portland Breakwater. It may be the Cragside which sank in 1923.

The story so far

What Archaeology has been able to tell us about the people of Dorset and the sea.

Ancient times

It is impossible to say when people first took to the sea off the Dorset coast. However by 8000 BC there is the first evidence of fishing and transport by water. At Culverwell, close to Portland Bill, the bones of two species of fish, Whiting and Ling, have been found on an extensive Mesolithic site. Neither of these species are easily caught from the shore, and the excavator suggested that they had been caught from 'some sort of sea-going craft such as a dug out canoe'. Further east in Christchurch Harbour, another site of similar date was excavated beside Mother Siller's Channel in Stanpit Marshes. This site now lies below high water mark, giving clear evidence of local sea level rise. Here blocks of Purbeck stone were used to build a hearth. The closest outcrop of this rock is at least fifteen miles away by land, so it is tempting to believe that these blocks were brought to Christchurch by sea.

The earliest evidence of a possible shipwreck comes from Chesil Beach, where two socketed axes of the middle Bronze Age (circa 1000 BC) have been found. They were probably made in Brittany and so provide evidence, not only of a shipwreck, but also of early international contacts.

By 300 BC, the first port facilities , the Green Island "Causeway", had been built.

From the same period comes the Poole Harbour log boat, the oldest boat yet discovered in the county. Carved from half an oak tree, this 10 metre boat was well suited to carrying cargoes around the sheltered waters of Poole Harbour, though with its low freeboard it could not safely be taken to sea.

On the southern edge of Christchurch Harbour, Hengistbury Head was also developed as a port. Substantial evidence of cross channel trade has been found here as well as an artificial 'hard', an area where ships were beached for loading and unloading.

The Roman conquest seems to have led to an increase in trade, and the development of new ports, Hamworthy in Poole Harbour and Radipole near Weymouth. Industries such as the potteries in Poole Harbour and the Kimmeridge Shale industry of Purbeck seem to have moved their goods by sea. Physical evidence for this trade has been found along the Dorset coast, amphorae in Weymouth Harbour, a scatter of Roman remains off Lulworth cove including a stone anchor and two late second century coins, as well as pottery and carved shale from Studland Bay.

In 877 AD, a Viking fleet was wrecked off Swanage. These are the first reported shipwrecks off the Dorset Coast. No traces of these wrecks have yet been found, though the discovery of a Viking sword in the Frome at Wareham hints at what might be discovered.

Medieval

There were eight medieval ports in Dorset, Lyme Regis, Bridport, Weymouth and Melcombe Regis (now combined into a single port but originally two separate boroughs), Swanage, Wareham, Poole and Christchurch. There is also evidence of the first attempts to prevent shipwrecks. There are three medieval buildings that may have served as lighthouses or sea marks. St. Aldhelm's Chapel on St. Aldhelm's Head. St. Catherine's Chapel at Abbotsbury and the Chantry at Bridport.

St. Aldhelm's Chapel is sometimes described as a medieval lighthouse, but there is no evidence for this. However the massive central column seems to have projected high above the present roof and so would have provided a very visible sea mark.

St. Catherine's Chapel, with a stairway to the massive stone roof, might well have served as a lighthouse. It is certainly a sea mark, indeed it owes its continued existence to its value as a navigational aid to passing sailors.

The Chantry at Bridport is a curious medieval tower house which lies to the south of the Borough. It has been traditionally associated with the harbour, for its location is such that if a vessel approaching Bridport Harbour (now West Bay) kept the Chantry in view it would avoid two shoals, the Ram and Pollock, which lie on either side of the harbour approach.

Scattered objects have been found on the sea bed, including a pewter flagon found off Chesil beach, which may relate to undiscovered wrecks. In about 1500 a Spanish trading vessel, sank in Studland Bay. This wreck, known as the Studland Bay Wreck, is the only vessel in Dorset waters protected under the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973.

The Studland Bay wreck was discovered by fishermen who snagged their nets on it in 1984. Divers who investigated the site realised the importance of the vessel, and created the Studland Wreck Project (now the Poole Bay Archaeological Research Group) to investigate the site. Fine coloured pottery from Valencia and Seville, as well as ballast stone from the Basque region, indicated the vessel’s Spanish links. The vessel dates from a time when Iberian ships were opening up the world’s oceans, but when very little is known of the achievements in ship construction which made this possible. For this reason this shipwreck is of international importance.

Evidence of other uses of the coast and sea has also been discovered. The curious submerged causeway underneath the Fleet may date from this time. The stone anchors and stone weights discovered at various points on the seabed off Dorset may well be associated with medieval fishing activity.

1500 to 1800
The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were periods of increasing international trade, as well as a greater concern with coastal defence. Evidence of trade, in the form of elephants’ tusks, has been found off Chesil Beach.

During the late seventeenth, and early eighteenth centuries, Lyme Regis was actively involved in the 'Africa Trade'. Less well known than the contemporary slave trade, this was a perfectly respectable trade of manufactured British goods for African raw materials. Ivory and exotic woods were the main items traded. It is impossible not to feel pity for the sailors who had survived a year-long voyage to one of the most inhospitable parts of the world, only to be wrecked in sight of home.

The coast was defended by a series of stone castles and blockhouses at Portland, Sandsfoot and Brownsea. These castles were designed to protect key anchorages and were widely seen as being 'state of the art' defences of the time. The growth in trade led to a desire to improve some of the county’s harbours.

In 1691, at Christchurch a new stone pier was built out into Christchurch bay and a substantial cut made through Mudeford Spit. These works were linked to one of the first British canals, an attempt to make the River Avon navigable from Christchurch to Salisbury. The canal was never successful, the cut naturally filled up, and the pier was allowed to decay. However its remains still exist, only visible at low water, and are known as Clarendon Rocks, commemorating Lord Clarendon who was one of the key promoters of the scheme.

The small stone pier in Lulworth cove may be of a similar, or slightly earlier, date. The only record, apart from the remains which lie in the south west corner of the cove, is to be found in an early eighteenth century print of the Cove which shows a substantial stone quay. By 1800, the quay had fallen into disuse as prints of that date show no sign of the quay, only a few projecting rocks which probably indicate its remains.

During the seventeenth century the stone trade from Portland and Purbeck was extensively developed, with most of the stone being moved by sea. Small quays were built close to the quarries. The remains of several of these survive. Durdle Quay, on the west coast of Portland, still has many of the features of these early stone quays, including a simple crane for loading the barges. Whilst at Winspit on Purbeck, there is remarkable evidence of the boats used to move the stone, in the form of graffiti cut by the quarry workers at the entrances to the adits from which the stone was cut. Here they carved sketches of single and two masted sailing barges that took the stone from the quays, as well as the larger square rigged vessels, that carried the stone to London and farther afield. Two of these stone barges have been found buried under the Hook Sands, just outside Poole Harbour the 'Antler Wreck' (as it is known) is a double-ended barge, 20 metres long. It was single-masted and had lee-boards rather than a keel to enable it to negotiate shallow water. The name ‘Antler Wreck’ derives from its secondary cargo, a quantity of deer antlers. The second lies in Weymouth Bay and is known simply as the ‘Portland stone barge' : it dates from the early eighteenth century. Two parts of a carved stone arch have been raised from this vessel and are now displayed in Weymouth .

Other industries also made their mark on the Dorset coast, at Kimmeridge a seventeenth century attempt to make glass in kilns fired with the inflammable Kimmeridge Shale failed, but left the remains of yet another stone quay. Later industries based on this material were no more successful. However, evidence of the metal piers and railway can still be found, together with exotic stones on the shore and remains of the ballast carried by the vessels which came to collect the shale. More successful were the clay industries of Poole Harbour; the remains of early timber quays have been discovered at Russell Quay, near Arne.

Improving communications during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries meant that more shipwrecks were recorded and in more detail. The Hasewell off Seacombe on Purbeck in 1786, Admiral Christian’s fleet off Chesil in 1795 and the Earl of Abergavenny in Weymouth Bay in 1805 were recorded in detail at the time and have become part of local folklore.

The Hasewell was an outward British East Indiaman which was wrecked off Seacombe on Purbeck in January 1786. It became famous at the time, mainly because among the passengers were several young women, all of whom perished. Recent work on the site has revealed a wide range of small objects, which survived the very violent wrecking process.

Admiral Christian was commanding a fleet of military transports, five of which were wrecked off Chesil in 1795. Despite detailed contemporary accounts of the disaster, no certain trace of any of the wrecked ships has yet been found.

The Earl of Abergavenny has attracted considerable attention from the time of its sinking until the present day. The death of its captain, John Wordsworth, brother of the poet, resulted in William Wordsworth composing several important works. The contemporary salvage operation, using primitive diving equipment, was a remarkable technical feat for the time. Whilst the recent excavations have uncovered, and continue to uncover, important information about not only Britain’s trade with the Far East, but unique information on ship construction at the time.

In response to the clear dangers of the coast, the first effective lighthouses were built on Portland in 1716. These two lighthouses were rebuilt in the early nineteenth century as the present Upper and Lower lights, a massive sea mark was added in 1844 to mark Portland Bill, then in 1905 the present lighthouse was built at the Bill. The older lighthouses have been adapted for other purposes, but are still recognisable.

Nineteenth and twentieth centuries

King George III turned Weymouth from a small port into a holiday resort, and since his time tourism has continued to develop along the coast. There are comparatively few traces of tourist activity offshore, the most noticeable being the remains of several of the paddle steamers which were built for the tourist trade in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

In August 1886 the paddle steamer Bournemouth was returning to its home port from a day trip to Torbay with over 200 people on board. It ran into fog, but the captain refused to slow, until the vessel rammed into Portland. No one was hurt and fragments of the vessel can still be found just below high water mark.

The other great change in the nineteenth century was the development of Portland as a naval base through the building of Portland Breakwater to create what was then the largest artificial harbour in the world. The breakwater incorporates many features of historic interest, notably the Breakwater, or Chequer, Fort. This has its own tiny harbour and, rusting in the sea just below the fort, the remains of the first guns that protected the breakwater. When they were replaced, the original weapons were too heavy to move so they were just rolled into the sea.

When the harbour was under construction a railway was built along the top of the breakwater, to help in the construction of both the railway and Chequer Fort. This crossed the South Ship Channel (where the Hood lies) by means of a wooden bridge. In 2004 whilst using multi-beam sonar to survey the wreck of the Hood the remains of the piles of this bridge were discovered, one of the few remaining traces of the wooden railway bridges that were common in the early days of the railways.

Shipwrecks continued to take place, the first steamship to sink off the coast was the Meteor, off the east coast of Portland in 1830. In 1825, after a particularly devastating storm, the first branches of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution were established in Dorset. Since 1825, there have been nine lifeboat stations around the coast, Mudeford, Poole, Swanage, Weymouth and Lyme Regis still function, but other stations now closed were once established at Bournemouth, Studland, Chapman’s Poole, Kimmeridge Bay and Portland. Early lifeboat houses can be found in several places, often with interesting architectural details.

The twentieth century brought the two world wars, many hundreds of vessels were sunk during the conflicts, and form a sizeable proportion of the vessels dived today off Dorset. These include early, and experimental submarines, as well as numerous aircraft.

The century also brought the development of sport diving, which opened up the underwater world, and allowed people to learn about the history that lies on the sea bed.