Bassenthwaite.
In Canada in 1835 the banks in Quebec were suffering from a lack of small denomination coins. As a consequence a Hardware retailer, J. Shaw, in that town set about to fill the void. He placed his usual hardware order with his supplier in England but this time he added a request from the producers to send him a consignment of small copper half penny coins. These coins were to show his business on one side and the kinds of things he sold, shovels, utensils, saws, kettles, etc, etc, on the reverse. By 1836 Mr Shaws' order was packed and loaded upon a brand new vessel fresh of the blocks of Maryport. This Brig was heavy with iron and what was described as a "very valuable cargo" when she sailed from Liverpool at the very beginning of April 1836. By the seventh of that month the ship emerged from St Georges Channel amidst a westerly gale blowing and a heavy sea running. By 7pm that evening, after sun set, the Bassenthwaite passed the Isles of Scilly to the north.
When Captain Mitchinson thought he was safely west of the islands he then turned south. Within the hour the Bassenthwaite struck the far western Rocks of Scilly and went down in deep water immediately. The cook and a cabin boy drowned but the captain and the rest of the crew took to the ships boats and landed safely four miles east on St Agnes Island. Everything had gone down with the ship, including the "valuable cargo" and Mr Shaws hardwares along with his newly minted copper coins. Unfortunately the vessel was uninsured, however, Shaw had seen fit to insure his own part of the cargo. When he received the news that the Bassenthwaite was lost he contacted his insurers and re-ordered his hardwares to be delivered on another vessel; which arrived at Quebec in 1837. Shaw immediately put his new coins into circulation but within a matter of weeks, the banks of Quebec openly criticised Shaw of "profiteering" Under pressure Shaw withdrew his coins from circulation. They had been used in the town for less than a year. Later reports stated that Bassenthwite had struck the Gunner Rock and history showed that Shaws coins were minted in 1837.
An 1830's Brig of Maryport.
Nearly two hundred years later I was searching for the wreck of HMS Romney; a 40 gun warship that sank at Scilly along with 3 others in 1707. A fleet under command of Admiral Sir Cloudesly Shovel had come among the western rocks of Scilly in late October and the Admirals 100 gun ship Association was wrecked on the Gilstone Rocks; the 60 gun Eagle was lost on Crebinick Rocks and the 8 gun Fireship, Firebrand, was lost on the Menglow rock. There was only one survivor from all four wrecks and he had escaped from the 40 gun Romney, which was lost in an unknown location. One historical report is that Romney had struck the Crim-another that she was lost elsewhere-closer to the Association. All of these shipwrecks, except the Romney, have since been found by divers. The Crim has been searched for the Romney but she has never been found on that reef. I dived an old 24 gun ship there but that wreck turned out to be a dutch ship called the Slootwick. Interestingly, the three other naval wrecks were all found to be on south eastern sides of their respective rocks; which kind of matched a naval historical narrative that, when the fleet found itself standing into danger- those ships which turned north were lost, while all those that had turned south were saved. I came up with a theory that if the Romney had done the same thing and struck the Crim on its inner side, then she may have been pushed by the prevailing heavy sea off the reef to sink in deep water to the south east of the reef. As a result, I set off out to that particular area employing a grid search pattern using a magnetometer to find iron objects on the sea bed. To cut a long story short, I detected a few anomalies on the sea bed, one of which matched the amount of ironwork the Romney would have had on board. The anomaly in question was in 30 meters depth at about two hundred yards south east of the Crim. At the time, it felt as though a plan had come together. There was a large amount of iron down there and I couldn't wait to get in and take a look. Was it the long lost Romney? At slack water I anchored my boat Buccaneer on the spot and diving all alone, I dropped over the side to ground truth the anomaly below. At first sight of the sea bed I saw a trail of iron ballast blocks. This was a very encouraging sign and typical naval practice to have on board; so I followed the trail. Within seconds I ran into a heaped mound of ironwork with a huge valley running right through the middle of it. This valley is where the ships keel had been but long since rotted away. There were a few cannons within the cargo mound, but I had expected to see many more. There was also a few anvils but most of the mound was a heap of general iron objects all concreted together into one solid thing. I have to say I was rather disappointed- it was clearly not HMS Romney. At that depth I only had half an hour at most so I surfaced with an artefact to declare to the Receiver of Wreck to register the discovery.
Later I returned to the site with friends to try to locate objects that would date or even identify the site. Overtime, we came up with all kinds of objects. Brass candlesticks; Jewish Harps; Copper ingots; brass thimbles; lots of small bronze bells and one small seemingly insignificant copper coin. I researched the coin and came up with the story of J Shaw above. I then realised that if this was the Bassenthwaite heading for Quebec then the coin wasn't a single chance find- there should be hundreds of them hidden down on the wreck somewhere. We went back to look, and sure enough I came across an area where the coins were buried to the side of the main cargo mound and many were still in the stacks as they were packed. We have found 300 so far. From this I knew this had to be the wreck of the Bassenthwaite which was heading for Quebec. She had not been lost on the Gunner as all reports had stated- she had struck the Crim and the sea had pushed her off to the South east just as I guessed may have happened to the Romney. The theory was sound and the Romney could still be in that area but probably in even deeper water. The wreck had also pushed the history of these rare copper coins back by one year. They were not minted in 1837 they were first minted in 1836 but had been lost in the wreck of the Bassenthwaite.
