Halsewell’s Human Toll

The Lost Souls

Most of the people who did not survive the disaster were washed up onto Seacombe ledge, less than 100 metres east of the disaster, it is believed that there were approximately 180 corpses that were buried at Seacombe Bottom, the lower section of Seacombe Valley. There were four rows of graves, to commemorate them a cross and a cannon, recovered from the ship, was erected at the site. These items disappeared over time but in 1856 it was stated that on the little patch of flat ground where the cliffs divide, near a stream that descends to the sea, there were traces of four long graves ³⁸.

The burial area may have been erased in the 1920’s by steam powered Peerless haulage lorries deployed by the operational Seacombe cliff quarry. After the first World War there was a surplus of American Peerless Steam lorries that were sold to the general public, some of these were purchased to local hauliers. In order to gain vehicular access, a road was cut through to the quarries, the only remaining evidence is the smooth tall hillock at the entrance and the wide footpath to the lower ledges.

Some of the bodies were washed up at Christchurch, where the foreshore from Christchurch head to Poole was strewn with timbers from the wreck.

The Christchurch Priory Parish Register of Burials for 1786 shows that in the two weeks after the event no less than fourteen bodies were recovered between Poole and Christchurch and buried at the Priory, mostly in pauper’s graves if they could not be identified. One such who could be identified and buried at the Priory was Mary Pierce, the captain’s daughter, who had perished with her father, her sister and her two cousins.

The Christchurch burial records for 1786 contain the following entries: On the 12 January a body was washed up at West Cliff; on the 13th Midshipman Charles Webber aged 13 and passenger Mr John George Schultz together with three others, named unknown; on the 14th another five unnamed men; on the 26th two more unnamed men; on the 29th an unnamed man and woman and on the 30th an unnamed man ³⁹. The overall figure according to the Hampshire Chronical ⁴⁰ was 20, those who had not be owned were interred at the expense of the Christchurch Lord of the Manor G.I. Taps ⁴⁴

The only other victim to be buried on hallowed ground was one washed up several weeks later and buried in the churchyard of Worth Matravers parish church.

The majority of the bodies of the victims that could be recovered were buried in mass graves on the cliff above the shipwreck, a fact that later caused great controversy, that so many were denied a decent Christian burial on hallowed ground ⁴⁷.

Items Washed Ashore in 1786

A Bible Box of carved oak and ornately decorated, that is now the property of a resident of Worth Matravers.

A Side table, with a single drawer dated from the time 1689-1702. In this drawer was a note that described the weather on that fateful night, it was heavy snow, a point that is not mentioned by Henry Meriton. Other details, no doubt written by an officer, are the Halsewell Burthen was 758 tons and it was running ashore upon the rocks ²⁸

Salvaging the Wreck

In the Hampshire Chronical ⁴⁰, a letter dated 14 January 1786 was published, as follows.

…The very severe weather has prevented any experiments being made hitherto upon the wreck of the Halsewell, East Indiaman, but at the place is marked by buoys, and the property on board her valuable, the divers will be at work as soon as Spring approaches. It was later stated that divers from Weymouth had been able to visit the site, and with little or no equipment managed to recover a substantial amount of material. The probable technique deployed in their diving operations was to jump from a boat into the water possibly with a heavy weight which could be easily released. Then by holding their breath they would be able to fix ropes onto the objects enabling the men in the boat to raise the same.

Although without a wetsuit it is unlikely that the divers could have remained in the water for more than two hours each day.
During January customs officers were able to salvage the following from the wreck:
54 barrels of foreign red wine; three trunks of stationary; three halves of cattle hide; five partly full hogshead, a hogshead is 50-gallon container, of port known as porter; a quantity of nails, hoops and sundry articles of ironware ⁴⁵.
Later that year the Hampshire Chronicle published the following advertisement.