The Wreck in the Hamble River

Extract

At one of this Society's meetings last January Mr. Laird Clowes, of the Science Museum, read a paper on the remains of a ship in the Hamble river above Bursledon. The chief feature of this paper, or at least the point emphasized in the daily press, was the conclusion that the wreck—from its shape and the heaviness of its timbering—was probably that of a merchantman of the middle of the nineteenth century.

This suggestion aroused a good deal of indignation locally, since the existence of a so-called ‘Danish galley of about A.D. 900’ was a matter of considerable pride, even though the wreck was generally invisible and always difficult of access. Critics pointed out very promptly that Mr. Laird Clowes had somehow overlooked the fact that even the present remains are quite as wide as the largest opening of Bursledon bridge, which was built between 1783 and 1800, and yet are a mile or more above that bridge. Clearly the ship must belong to a date before 1800, while various peculiarities mentioned by Mr. Laird Clowes seemed to make it impossible for her to belong to either the eighteenth or the seventeenth century. If so, she must date from before 1600, but how much before it was difficult to say.