Maritime record MWX1616 - St Goymelote

- wine laden was boarded and her cables cut, so that she drove ashore on the island where the wine was carried off by the transgressors.(1)(3)

Driven ashore at Portland, cargo of wine stolen.(2)

Owner: Merchants of Bayonne and St Sebastian Date of Loss Qualifier: R Additional sources; Warren, p52

In 1311, Fernaldus Martyn and Peter de Garsi had said that when they were wrecked on the sea coast near Abbotsbury the people there broke open their chests, when washed ashore, and appropriated 100 marks of gros Tournois (coins) & 100 marks sterling, together with other goods, [Cal. Pat R 1307-73, 422]. (5)

Date of loss in (1) and (3) given as 1311, based on (2) below:

There appear to be variant accounts for this vessel "owned by merchants of Bayonne and St. Sebastian" in 1305 and as the "Saint Coymelote" in 1322, all in the vicinity of Portland. It is not unknown at this period for legal accounts of wrecks to appear over several years, so these could quite conceivably be accounts of the same vessel. 1311 is, however, the only date given by more than one source, and by the primary sources.

1305: Ship owned by merchants of "Dayonne" [sic] and St. Sebastian driven ashore near Portland.

1322: SAINT COYMELOTE wrecked at Portland. (4) < http://www.portlandbill.co.uk/wrecks_list.htm > [Accessed 03-AUG-2006]

July 20, Berwick-on-Tweed. Commission to Robert son of Payn, Matthew de Furneus and Richard de Chiselden, whom the king had previously commissioned to enquire in the county of Dorset touching alleged attacks on foreign merchants upon the sea and the seizure of their goods, and before whom an inquisition had been taken at the prosecution of Stephen de la Funteyne, merchant of Perigeux, who asserted that divers persons in the water between Weymuthe and the island of Portland boarded a ship, the SEINT GOYMELOTE of Gerounde, freighted with his wine, carried away a great part of the wine, and cut the cables when the ship was driven ashore by the wind on the island where the remainder of the wine was carried off by other transgressors, which inquisition the king sends to them with instructions to enquire further touching the matter.' (5)

Owner: of cargo, merchants of Bayonne and St Sebastian (2); Stephen de la Funteyne, of Periguex (5)

Date of Loss Qualifier: Reporting date of loss

Additional sources cited in Shipwreck Index of the British Isles:
Warren, p52



The building date for this vessel is an estimate based on an average age at wrecking of twenty years. This average is derived from those vessels wrecked on the Dorset coast whose age at wrecking is known.

<1> Larn, Richard, 1992, United Kingdom shipwreck index, Extracted 23 November 1992 (Index). SWX5030.

<2> 1975, Dorset magazine : the county magazine vol. 48, p12 (Article in serial). SWX4573.

<3> Larn, R, and Larn, B, 1995, Shipwreck index of the British Isles, volume 1 : Isles of Scilly, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset Section 6, Dorset (AJ) Vol 1 (Monograph). SWX4541.

<4> Le Pard, G, 1995-2003, Dorset Coast Forum Maritime Archaeological Database, Shipwreck 312 (Digital archive). SWX8707.

<5> Morris, P, 2002, Abbotsbury Historic Landscape Research Report (Digital archive). SWX8817.

<5.1> Calendar of Patent Rolls, Edward II, 1307-13, membrane 24 (Unpublished document). SDO20500.

<6> National Record of the Historic Environment, 900409 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Feb 16 2024 3:59PM