Maritime record MWX4920 - Drifter to H.M.S. Warspite

A Drifter to H.M.S. Warspite stranded on the Mixen Rocks, Weymouth, in 1920.

A Drifter to H.M.S. Warspite stranded on the Mixen Rocks, Weymouth, in 1920. (1)

On October 5th 1920, the lifeboat carried out a difficult service ….. The drifter attached to H.M.S. Warspite for stores, personnel and ammunition duties, stranded on the Mixen Reef in rough seas whipped up by a strong south-easterly breeze. The Charles Deere James, a reserve lifeboat temporarily on the station, was asked to stand by. She remained at hand in very unpleasant conditions until a tug got a hawser to the drifter and when she was refloated in a leaking state accompanied her into harbour in case she should suddenly founder.(2)(3)

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.

Salvaged

<1> Le Pard, G, 1995-2003, Dorset Coast Forum Maritime Archaeological Database (Digital archive). SWX8707.

<2> Farr, Grahame, 1971, Wreck and rescue on the Dorset coast (Monograph). SWX1056.

<3> Le Pard, G F, 2005, Shipwrecks of the Dorset Coast (Monograph). SDO9637.

<4> Cumming, E, The Dorset shipwreck and maritime incident directory, 27 (Monograph). SDO16406.

Record last edited

Mar 16 2020 12:05PM