Introduction

The story that follows is based on a catastrophic event that occurred on the 6th January 1786, the famous ship wreck of the Halsewell, at the Cliffs near St Aldhelms Head, on the Isle of Purbeck, Dorset. From the Halsewell’s compliment of 286 persons only 74 survived the ordeal, the drowned were washed up onto Seacombe Ledge, or six to 18 days later on the beaches between Poole and Christchurch or simply disappeared into the tempestuous sea and entombed under fallen rocks. None of the 12 paying passengers survived, it must have been terrifying to hear Halsewell’s creaking timbers splitting under the strain of the sea water, prior to the total collapse due to the torrent of the waves.

The loss of the Halsewell was a national disaster and manifested itself in various avenues, on Monday 6th March 1786 the Times newspaper carried an advertisement for a presentation of Mr Loutherbourgh’s Eidophusikon, including the awful and pathetic Scene of the Storm and Shipwreck Halsewell East Indiaman. This was the first ever disaster movie, it only lasted 15 minutes but, it became a London sensation and it was shown 50 years before the invention of photography. The theatre which seated around 130 people paying three to five shillings each, comprised of a miniature stage about two metres wide, one metre high and 2.7 metre deep, supported with miniature landscape pictures, magic lantern slides, dramatic sound and lighting.

The Halsewell set sail for Madera on Monday the 2nd January 1786, the weather was calm in the morning, but when they attempted to land the Pilot near Ventnor the Isle of Wight at 3 pm a southernly breeze sprung up a forcing the ship to anchor in 18 fathoms of water at 9 pm at the western entrance to the Solent, with the Pilot still aboard. At this point heavy snow was falling and they were unable to gather in the lower sails, due to ice.

On Tuesday the 3rd, at four in the morning, a strong gale came in from the East-North-East pushing the ship southernly out to sea. At 10 pm the southern wind became a violent gale and they trimmed their sails to a minimum to ensure the ship would keep off shore.

On Wednesday the 4th January, at 8 am, the ship got before the wind and made progress for two hours and the crew had managed to decrease the bilge water from seven to five feet using the hand driven pumps.

At 10 am, the wind had dropped causing the fore top-mast over onto the port side, in the fall the mast went through the fore sail and tore it to pieces.

At 11 am the wind changed and blew from the west and the sky cleared allowing the captain to see Berry-head an east facing headland at the south of Tor Bay, Devon, bearing North and by East 11 degrees 25 minutes East of North at a distance of five leagues or 15 miles. They now attempted to sail back to Portsmouth for repairs.

On Thursday 5th January at 2 am, the wind direction changed to a Southernly, blew fresh and snowed. At noon Portland Bill was visible bearing North and by East at a distance of two to three leagues or six to nine miles. The captain’s objective was to safely negotiate Peveril Point, Swanage and anchor the ship in Studland Bay, this would protect the ship from the prevailing southern wind.

At 11 pm the sky cleared and the crew was able to see St Aldhelm’s Head, at a distance of half a league or one and a half miles; the head is located two miles south of Worth Matravers, Swanage. The Halsewell then hit the St Aldhelm’s Head tidal race and swirled fiercely around in a clockwise direction for three hours with her Guns of distress firing. When the last anchor failed the ship was propelled even further to the rocks surrounding Winspit; the Guns of distress were cannons, to alert those onshore to their predicament. Finally, the battle against the elements was lost and the ship foundered on the rocks at 2 am on Friday 6th January 1786.
From a book written in 1786 by the Halsewell’s Second Mate and Third Mate, Henry Meriton and John Rogers respectively “A circumstantial Narrative of the Loss of the Halsewell”

At the wreck location, 100 yds west of Seacombe ledge, the cliff, is a hundred foot high.
… is excavated at the bottom and presents a cavern of 10 or 12 yards in depth and the breadth equal to the length of a large ship, the sides of the cavern so nearly upright as to be extremely difficult of access, the roof formed of the stupendous cliff and the bottom of it strewed with sharp and uneven rocks, which have been rent from above by some convulsion of nature. It was at the mouth of this cavern that the unfortunate wreck lay stretched almost from side to side of it and offering her broadside to the horrible chasm… ³⁶ .