SEA GRAVEYARDS

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 January 1929, Page 9

SEA GRAVEYARDS

SHIPS WRECKED BY WRECKS TRAPS ON ENGLISH COAST The coasts of Britain are littered with wrecks which are the dread of every skipper, writes a London exchange. They are the unknown, unchartered quantities. At any moment may come that shock which makes the great steel hull quiver. Rocks and shoals may be skirted with ease, but v.-bat if the water of the fairway hides a horrid hulk! Many of these graveyards under the sea are known, but there are countless others, sunk in the flurry of the storm, which are never' located —until fate st’ikes and wreck piles upon wreck. Only recently the Solway Firth st k a submerged wreck off Margate' Roads. She was among the fortunate, for her crew of ten were rescued and the vessel was beached on Shingle Bank.

But that is child’s play compared with the great graveyards. Romance lies in them as in the landsman’s sacred acre. Lives are lost and fortunes won all the year- round in salvage work. If the sea would lay bare the lockers of Davy Jones, there would be found riches in gold, silver and precious stones mingled with the bones of those who have paid forfeit. At the moment there is a battle as to who should be held responsible for the wreck of a vessel named the Spider, which is ashore off Lowestoft, and has been for several years. This wreck is a veritable spider. She is covered when the waves run high, and is causing other ships to be wrecked around her. Obviously it is someone’s duty to remove her, and the subject has been before the Marine Department of the Board of Trade, Trinity Housb and a railway company, who either chartered' or owned her. The harbour authorities disclaim responsibility, notwithstanding the wreck is a menace. There is a wreck at Rye which is well out of reach of winter gales. Here a family lives. The vfessel is perfectly dry at low water, but when the tide rises round her the wreck dwellers use a dinghy when they want to come ashore. It is quite dry and comfortable —and they are not eternally bothered by rate and tax collectors. There are times when wrecks come ashore to stay until they are either cut up or they rot to pieces. Such a wreck was the s.s. Wick Bay, which stranded in the Wash with a full cargo on board. There were only certain times of the tide that the work of salvage could be carried out. and men were kept busy for years in removing cargo and everything. in the way of machinery and fittings until morning was left but the skeleton.

Whoever did the salvage work reaped a harvest through someone else’s misfortune.

When recently a vessel was piled high and dry with a general cargo, the wreck fetched a mere song. The purchaser undertook to remove it, and as there were only a few farmers in the locality where the vessel stranded, the enterprising man had things pretty much his own way. He did remarkably well until they came , to the lower part of the main hold, where a consignment of beer and spirits were stored. Work was suspended. Winter set in and much of the otherwise good cargo was destroyed.