HMS Association designation.

 

How and why did the Association wreck site get an emergency designation? 

Well it all started with that anchor we lifted from Nut Rock in St Marys roads in 2013. That anchor was lifted from the Association wreck site in 1967 by the Royal Navy. They took it to St Marys to donate it to the islands for display here on St Marys. However, the short sightedness of our council back then turned their offer down-(I thought to say "generous" offer but everything the navy does is done with public money.)  The council didn't want responsibility. With nowhere else to go with the anchor the navy placed the anchor over by nut rock. The commander of this saga deserved a reprimand for poor planning using public money.  Nut rock is where we found the anchor in 2012 and then lifted it again. Unlike the navy team, this time we had funding and locals & the council's help to get the anchor from nut rock to display on the Green by the porthcressa schiller shelter. We told the Receiver of wreck what we were going to do. We also had an MMO licence to lift the anchor. From there someone went to Historic England and told them about our plan. For some strange reason, Historic England, then got into a fluster. Heaven knows why, but for some unknown reason, they thought we were lifting the anchor from the Association wreck site, -which is 7 miles away from Nut rock.  We then lifted the anchor from Nut Rock and got it ashore, totally unaware what was going on in the background. From freedom of information requests from Historic England clearly showed that they had contacted the DCMS and secretary of state and basically lied to them. They told the DCMS that two local divers, with a history of this kind of thing (lie no1) were about to raise the bows of the Association. (Lie no2) As a consequence of the dust kicked up by Historic England, the wreck received an emergency designation order over it. No one was consulted. Not one single stake holder was contacted. None of the salvage men then in control of the wreck were asked. No assessment of the wreck site took place. We were not asked what we thought. Nor did they look at the evidence as to where we had lifted our anchor from. We had sonar data showing its exact position on the seabed by nut rock where we found it. We had documentary evidence of the navy having placed it there in 1967. We never went anywhere near the Gilstone ledges where the Association lay. What was most ironic was that because of the failings above, a large part of the wreck lays outside of the new Government designated zone- and the place where the navy originally lifted this anchor from is part of that which lays outside!! This means that the part of the wreck then seemingly to be in most danger of salvage from the- "2 local divers with a history" -still lays undesignated today -so the place on the sea bed they were trying to protect has never been covered by the very emergency protection order designed to protect it!  All this I can prove-even down to exact position the anchor originally came from in 1967.  Those who ran Historic England at this time should have had some serious questions to answer. All the above silliness was simply because they couldn't be bothered to assess the site or ask anyone involved for information- how else can you get to the truth of what was going on?  Never has a designation of a wreck been more amateurishly, nor needlessly performed, or ill conceived. 

The anchor being lifted from deep sand by nut rock & clearly nowhere near from the Gilstone wreck site where Association lays.

 Another idiocy to come out of this saga was that the Receiver of Wreck wrote to me after the anchor was ashore stating that the original owners-the Royal Navy-had not wanted us to get their anchor ashore, therefore the salvage of it should not have taken place. I merely answered in the obvious-"if the Navy did not want the anchor salvaged-then why did they lift it from the wreck in the first place?"  Apparently all this was me- "antagonising the authorities." -at the time.  The result of all this was we lost our funding to get the anchor on display and now it lays in a field doing nothing-simply because the droit has never been cleared up by the Receiver of Wreck.  If the anchor has no owner it cant be passed on to the council. Only half of the Association got designated and a lot of people got very pissed off. All was avoidable had the authorities just done their jobs properly and acted as the law dictates.

Out of generosity we mere private sector citizens lifted this anchor ashore for public display. Had we simply been allowed to go through with the project it would have been on porthcressa green to this day. Instead it languishes in a field here on St Mary's still awaiting the paperwork to be cleared up- a job that is quickly done with the mere stroke of a pen. Well done government workers for all your help and cooperation in this worthy project. 

Going back to the navy using public money- A navy man (who had a lot to say about this anchor) once wrote to me how he, "under his own initiative, took a Gemini inflatable to go find the wreck of the SS Schiller".  The letter from this government worker-for that is what he was- was written like I was supposed to be mightily impressed by his actions paid for in part by me. You see he was in the navy at the time & he used navy equipment- all funded for by the public purse. My reply to this was that whenever I go hunting shipwrecks- I use my own boat and my own equipment- so any searching I do for wrecks is all funded out of my own pocket. Stick that in your arrogant Navy (Government worker) pipe and smoke it!  

Accidental find.

We went over to walk the Samson sandbar at low tide recently and as I anchored the boat just north of Nut Rock, I noticed a long curved line down in the sand below the boat.  'That needs further investigation' I thought. Well, we had our walk on the bar with the dog, then went back to the boat to get my snorkeling gear on. I then dropped into the water to investigate the curve under the boat. I arrived in roughly the centre of the curve and duck dived down to have a closer look. It turned out to be a thick hefty length of iron chain. I then chose to follow it along off to my right towards Stoney Island.  However, after about 30m the chain disappeared down under the sand. I then turned to go other way and went along it for about another 30m-60m now in total. At its end I found this in the video below. 

(The wife is in the following video to give it some scale)

 There was obviously some incident had occurred in this position- and the anchor being around circa 1900 gives the incident a rough date in time. The chain ran from this anchor in the east to west towards stoney island where the chain disappeared in the sand. This must mean that the vessel was dragging towards that island and had to quickly cast away its gear to get away from danger. Maybe the vessel went ashore there but was later got off on a higher tide-who knows!!?. I was just amazed to see this thing where it now lies to still be there- for whatevever happened there- the chain and anchor were clearly salvageable and the locals were very good at that kind of thing- so why was it left behind? Not only that but this anchor stands up in a very well used local channel. It lays between nut rock and the entrance to Tresco channel. How noone has hit it thus far is amazing. Maybe someone has and I've just not heard of it yet. Our small boat could just about touch on it on a very low spring tide so bigger boats must be in more danger of it- and its not marked on any chart. But I supposed no bigger boat need go over that way until the tide is high enough for them to enter Tresco channel via nut rock anyway. Still we had a bit of fun with this hazard on this day recently. 

An update.

I went away to the mainland recently to visit the Globe theater. I just love shakespeare and always wanted to visit the new globe- but being as its only open in summer, this makes it very difficult to get away. However my wife booked seats to see Henry the 8th. I thought it was great apart from they corrupted the story to include some Feminist nonsense. I do wish these people would leave things alone, the play was perfect the way it was written. I have a message for those who indulge in this kind of crap-"YOU ARE NOT VICTIMS"  -and write your own plays- tho I bet noone would come to see them! 

While we were in London we saw the queues to see the queen. I did not feel the need to join them as i appreciated in my heart everything our wonderful queen did for us all. We also went to see  the inside workings of Tower bridge. Loved that too. The bridge raising mechanics are a work of art. See video below

It had 2 Boilers just like those found on old steamship shipwrecks

Had a couple of dips where this was anchored up. The devastation it left on the sea bed was incredible. It started with a hole 20ft long X 10ft wide X 4ft deep. from there 3 banks of sand ran for about 200meters. The banks were about 18inxches high and between them were the propellor marks. Then there was the anchor grooves and a vast area where the keel left many shallow grooves as the vessel swung on the tide. Not complaining tho-lots of goodies being uncovered like old bottles and clay pipes 

This sketch is a representation of the hole & Propellor marks

In other news-
Before I went away- I also had a little dip on the Pheonix  and found a strange object in the rocks just north of the cannon pile on the wreck. (sank in 1680)  I have no idea what it is. My guess is it being the remains of some kind of small arms. If anyone out there knows what this is I'd be very grateful to hear?  It is very well worn down by sea and sand after being exposed for over 300 years. Images of it below-

 

The trouble with Romney.

The trouble with Romney.

This is the Edmund Gostello chart which, if you zoom in, depicts where the 4 royal navy warships sank in 1707. It shows Association, Eagle, Romney and even gives the correct position of the Fireship Firebrand. Its only fault is that it has the Eagle & Romney sites mixed up. So, if the chart is correct on 3 counts as to where 3 of the wrecks are now known to be- Why has the Romney still been so elusive? The chart is correct and has even been indorsed by the Royal navy as it carries a large Board of Ordnance mark shown in red stamped upon it. The navy are not generally given to fantasy so to me the chart must be correct on all counts. Well, this is how I think the information on the chart came about- 

Two men,  Thomas Netherton and James Durnford, were sent to Scilly to survey the 4 shipwrecks on behalf of the navy, and along with two engineers to salvage what they could. They could see masts and flags etc standing up on 3 of the wrecks. They could see Association as it was sticking out of the water between Gilstone ledge & eastard ledge. They knew where Firebrand was in Smith Sound from the size of wreckage and from the testimony of survivors ashore there. The wreck they thought was Romney on Crebinnick was given away by the tops of the standing rigging but it was otherwise too deep to see for sure which ship it in fact was. As for the Eagle, shown here on the Crim, no evidence of her exact position was on show just floating wreckage and one survivor who had made it to a rock now called Carn Lawrence- (the rock was later named after him). Lawrence came from the Romney and would have tried to share where his ship then came to be wrecked- but its very doubtful if he actually knew- its very unlikely that he knew the Crim from the Crebinnick let alone exactly what rock Romney was lost on-afterall, his captain didnt even know the fleet was at Scilly & nor did the Admiral of the fleet. So with basically very little to go on, the navy men hazarded a guess as to which ship was on Crebinnick and which was lost around the area of the Crim.  They guessed wrong and thats what went onto the chart. They removed as much wood and iron as they could from the Association and Firebrand, they also assisted with the grounded Phoenix then left the Islands. This chart was then produced using the information gathered above.

Association gun by A n other.

Move now to the 1960's and the search for these lost ships. Association was proven to be where the chart stated it to be. So too was Firebrand. They looked for the Romney on Crebinnick but instead found the Eagle lying there -but essentially the Gostello chart proved correct on all 3 wrecks in the places shown-but it showed up the guess work done by the navy's men as to identity of those wrecks. A search of the Crim revealed an old cannon site in deep water west side of the  reef. Roland Morris stated this was Romney but he was wrong. I dived that wreck for 3 years and found the site is not English but more likely mediterenean and probably Ottoman Empire. And with just 24 guns it is too small for the 40 gun Romney- it also dates from around the late 1630's.  I found numerous Ottoman Empire clay pipes and 3 different sherds of pottery found on the site were all mediterenean in origin. Nothing dated to earlier than 1630 but the pipes were mid to early 17th century. As a note of interest- The word Crim could have originated from Crimea- the Crim Tartars were sailors from Crimea Turkey and were referred to as the Crim- or the Crim tartars. Either way it again suggests people of the ottoman empire-so this reef could well have been named after this wreck. I received an award for my work on this wreck site from the Nautical archaeology society. For the most part I was working it alone in 35 to 45meters depth.

My site plan of the Crim site. The wreck is likely to be ottoman empire circa 1630.

No other site on the Crim thus far found has been the Romney either. Next we have the spanner in the works- in the form of a narrative, taken from the log of one of the ships that escaped this disaster, which stated that the Romney was lost on the same rocks as Association! Indeed there are far too many guns around where the Association was lost to be from just one wreck- but my research shows there's been at least 2 other gun ships lost thereabouts so this is bound to be the case.

 
I still favour the Crim-Why? Because 3 men, the two navy guys and one survivor, emphatically place one of the wrecks out that way and their evidence clearly puts her in deep water as no standing wreckage was found to be on show. Further to this, the narrative I just stated is vague-('rocks') and comes from a vessel in bad weather trying to escape the disaster itself. In such circumstances one ship in trouble can easily mistake which ships are immediately around themselves- as was found to be the case in other narratives from other ships logs involved in the disaster whom believed they were by this or that ship when they were later found to be mistaken.

So where is the Romney? For this I turn to another narrative of the time that states how-when the fleet found itself standing into danger, "all the ships that turned to North were lost- and all the ships that turned to southward were saved." To this I think the Romney could well have struck the east side of a reef as indeed did  had the Association and Eagle. So if Romney may similarly have struck, then the prevailing swells here, which always emanate from the Northwest, would have pushed her off and forcing her out into deep water and towards the Southeast of whatever rock it was she struck, making the search area vast. Applying this same theory in search of Romney- is how and why I found the Bassenthwaite which also struck the Crim in 1836. I found her in deep water Southeast of the Crim while searching for Romney. The Thornliebank wreck has also been spread across the same reef from NW towards the SE. These two facts show my theory is sound-and it has been encouraging to me in my search for the Romney- but I fear the Romney will be deeper still and possibly in over 40meters. She may have even struck the Gunner rather than Crim or possibly even the Nundeeps.

Another theory that I had and applied before in my searching, was that if the Romney was originally thought to be on the Crebinnick, then what the navy men then thought was the Eagle could be placed between Crebinnick and the Gilstone- putting her on either Retarrier or Issacs Ledge. I looked and failed to find her on either-however I did find one old iron gun and a few dateable items off to the side of the wreck of the SS Schiller which, interestingly enough was also on the east side of the Retarrier.  The one gun I did find was standing on its barrel in a hole among the boulders and I could physically move it side to side with its cascabel button. Sadly I was at the end of my reels length at that point in the dive, so could not survey the area further -and I had very little idea as to where I was on the reef at the time. I hit all around the Schiller on later dates but never located the spot again. All I do know is that Schiller wreckage was close by the gun. Somewhere there by the Schiller is another much older wreck.

In any theorizing I apply to this project-I am of course hoping Romney never glanced off a rock and sailed on to sink to the north as many other wrecks have done in this area before from hitting Crim or the Bishop rocks- All one can do is go with a current theory until it is exhausted then come up with a new theory and apply that to its conclusion too- As I have tried to show above- there are far too many variables in the search for this wreck- and that is the trouble with Romney! 

Diving cruise ship damage.

 

Cruise ships in St Marys Roadstead Scilly. Sometimes 3 at a time anchor here nowadays.

In recent years, when time or weather wont allow me to go searching where I want, just for fun, I have been diving the anchorage here. Basically, when ever a cruise ship comes in and anchors in shallow water, I go by it on my boat and take a GPS of its position. When it leaves, I then dive the spot to see whats left behind-this is because they tear up the sea bed with their propellors and anchors.  & Sometimes the damage caused uncovers all sorts of hidden goodies-especially when the ship was a big one.  

They seem to favour around Nut Rock and close to Samson Island like this one.

Most of the anchorage is silt but the more well used areas, where the cruise ships favour anchoring most, becomes loose and a whole layer can be removed entirely. As a result, all the items thrown overboard throughout the centuries can become exposed. I then drop in and pick up whats on view, and in doing so, I have had some really nice little finds. These ships are sometimes anchored so close to the sea bed that sometimes you can even see a keel line in the silt and even individual propeller blade marks either side as the ship moved away.  We saw this exact thing the other day. The anchors being pulled up can also leave great swathes trawled in to the sea bed too. The best of it though is that, in the most used areas, because the sea bed has become softer due to being no longer compact, the crabs move in and settle afterwards as they favour the softened up areas. These creatures then dig huge holes to settle in. So much upheaval occurs that a once totally flat area suddenly looks like the moon or like the battle of the somme- as craters appear everywhere and this all further throws up buried items. Imagine an old bottle stuck under flat silt. There it sits hidden from view for a hundred years -or more. The layer just above it however is fairly thin and thus less compact and even quite loose in comparison to the surrounding sea bed. Now imagine a cruise ship drives right over the spot its huge props whipping up the sea bed into a cloud of sand and silt. When the dust settles anything like an old bottle has become exposed because the layer over it has now gone and there it lays now on show-often in a shallow depression. I then turn up and find it before it gets covered over again. 

Me with an early 19th century bottle from the anchorage.

Also, amidst all the new devastation small items get thrown about with the sand and so lots of small lighter items now litter the surface too-items like clay pipes, plates and pot lids-all sorts of things. A bonanza of junk but amidst it all the odd gem is found like an onion bottle or a mallet bottle. Doing expanding circular searches, I can sweep an area and clean up all that is on show, then return at a later date and do it again as all the crabs, in digging their holes, have exposed even more stuff! The anchorage has gone from a boring place to dive to a really fun place to visit. Its not all fun though as we have dived a lot of flat silt areas and seen anything- even though a cruise ship has been through- this is because in some areas the silt is so thick it would need a lot of cruise ship action to break through its thick layer. These are the places where one sees the keel & prop marks of an individual ship. These areas I mark as 'hard silt' and count the amount of times they are visited, in the hopes that one day the silt will break up. One ship in those areas is not enough but if just one ship goes into one of the thinner softer areas Im there like a shot to see whats about. 

                                  A small victorian oil bottle circa 1830 thanks to the cruise ships

 None of  this stuff is from shipwrecks. I even contacted the Receiver of wreck to make sure of  what their policy is today with discarded items not deemed to be from wrecks- I was told before there was no need to declare such items but asked again just in case rules have changed at all since then. Still not had an answer on this one as yet though - they are probably rushing together a new policy as I write.😆

Some items have been declared if I feel its even possible they came from a wreck even though no wreck was in immediate evidence where the item was found. Majority of items recovered are Victoriana from right through that queens long and extinguished reign and none of them could possibly be deemed as from any shipwreck.  I did however find a lot of medieval pottery close to Nut Rock a number of years ago and it was all declared just in case a medieval wreck was once around there. Image from then below. It was diving that area that I noticed all the damage being done by cruise ships more recently that gave me the idea to follow where they go. 

Declared Medieval pottery from near Nut Rock

The occasional gem- A nice Mallet bottle circa 1750 from the anchorage. 

We also found a limestone mound in the area too. This mound has one small anchor nearby but not any other evidence of a wreck. We found a few bottles around the limestone and declared them just in case but all were from differing eras so probably never related to the mound anyway as a result.  The only item that could be connected to the limestone in any way, was a broken bottle I found with a seal attached. The name on the seal is R Cunnack Jun r. (junior)  The Cunnacks were a family who ran a smelting yard in Cornwall and thus used lots of limestone in their work. The broken bottle is circa 1790's but I could find no vessel in the archives sunk with limestone in that era. 

Most bottles found are of the victorian era types like those below. Codds, beer bottles, egg shape hamiltons,  & ginger beers. All circa 1890. Many more are found broken but I bring up the intact ones found. All thrown overboard by the same types of litter bugs we have who litter today. Yes we see lots of modern rubbish too but Im only interested in the Historic littering! You could say I'm doing my bit to clean up the anchorage!  

Which brings to mind the day my wife and I cleared up 12 bin bags full of plastic bottles. Below is an image of the mound we found on an uninhabited island just before we cleaned it all up. I wonder if it should all end up having to be declared to the Receiver of wreck if they change their policy? 

This took 12 bin bags to clear it up. At first our council refused to take it all at the time but were left with no choice. Maybe they thought I wasn't the legal owner of it all at the time.😆

Looking for the Phoenix Bell.

 With all the new wrecks I have discovered over the years, I have never yet found a whole complete ships bell.  This is because the sea does such damage to lost vessels here that they get dispersed far and wide. Not only that but most of the shallow sites were extensively salvaged when they were originally wrecked here. The locals have always been expert salvors or called in the big guns like the Deane brothers Lethbridge and Braithwaite. Deeper wrecks sometimes produce them. I was hoping for a bell when I found the Phoenix but then learned about Thomas Ekins who extensively salvaged on Scilly. I also found a document showing all the cargo that was salvaged from the wreck in 1680. During his time here Ekins worked at least 5 wrecks that I know of. Phoenix being one of them. I am pretty certain that timbers from both the Phoenix and the Golden Lyon- two wrecks lost in 1680, both lost in very accessible positions, were heavily worked by Ekins- and that those timbers from both these ships went to build the first church on St Agnes Island-which was known to be constructed entirely of wood. It has also always been known that the church carried a bell in its tower that also came from a shipwreck. Again one wonders if that too came from Phoenix along with the wood. Was the bell from Phoenix Golden Lyon or some other wreck I know that Ekins had salvaged?  

The first wooden church got blown down by a great storm in the early 18th century but was resurrected back stronger shortly after with the same wood.  However, that too got blown down sometime later.  This is not unlike the story of the 3 little pigs as the current church was built of stone to replace the two previous weaker built structures and it still stands today. This was built in the late 18th century. But what about the original bell? Where did it go? Was it put back? I went to find out. 

When the current church was built a bell was sent over from St Marys to go in its new tower, and it is reported to have come from a local shipwreck. "Urika" thought I, maybe it is the original bell returning! So one day recently I got permission from the local reverend to climb up the tower to have a look. I climbed the first ladder, opened a very dusty hatch which was covered in guano, then ascended up the next vertical ladder praying to see a bell with either a name or a date embossed upon it- or at very least to see a bell that may date into the 17th century. I was really hoping for positive evidence of it being from a shipwreck of the 1600's, however scant that evidence maybe. However, I was not to be disappointed in regards to it being from a shipwreck.

Sadly the bell was not from the Phoenix a wreck I found west of Samson, nor was it the Golden Lyon a wreck I have proven to be east of the Menglow Rock; both lost in 1680. Nor was it from any other wreck related to Thomas Ekins or even from the 17th century. But it was from a shipwreck and not one I had yet heard of as being wrecked in this area. The bell was from a Swedish ship called- the 'Count Lillieberg'. and that ship was built in 1781, long after Ekins had died. So the original bell was lost but this new bell needed further investigation. So now I was looking for a Swedish ship  possibly lost at Scilly in or after the year 1781. I had a few narratives in my files of swedish losses here in the years after 1781 but which narrative went with the bell? Where was the wreck ? Was she lost at Scilly as legend stated? I am looking into this and thus far all I know is that the way the word Frigate is spelt by the Swedish determines whether or not the ship was a Swedish navy vessel or an armed merchant vessel of similar size. I therefore believe this was from a merchant vessel built at Helgerum in 1781 and this ship appears in the Swedish ship listings for merchant vessels. The bell itself was made by Anders Billsten at Norrkoping.  (Guten = Cast.) (Fregatt Skieppet = Frigate ship)  (Grefwe = Count)

There is also a bell in the tower on Bryher Island that is also from a Swedish Frigate. That bell bares the name Aurora 1746. Is there 2 Swedish frigates lost at Scilly?  Coincidence? I will look into the Bryher bell at some point too.