Thursday 11 October 2007

Wreck On The Hamble

Walking along the banks of the River Hamble recently this impressive wreck caught my eye.

wreck2

Whilst the river is dotted with wrecks of old boats and riverside docks, this was by far the most prominent. A quick google search found this site, but I couldn't find any detailed information. A quick e-mail brought this response.

At present I only have a small amount of information about the wreck. I have talked to a few local people who have informed me that it is the remains of the Brixham Trawler ‘Terminist’ . Although I must admit I am not 100% about this identification as this vessel’s registration number was BM321 and the hulk appears to have the number BM123 on its port bow. Hopefully future research will throw some light on this. We have entered the vessel on our website (HAM044), but at the moment there is little information there, something I aim to address in the future.

The recording of these vessels is an ongoing process, with the results being entered in the local archives. This project relies on the assistance of volunteers. So if you have the free time and would like to be involved with archaeologically recording the vessels and maritime structures of the river you would be more than welcome.

A great example of how the internet is able to spread knowledge and share it quickly, although the knowledge in this case is, by the author's own admission, far from certain. Next time I am down that way I'll do my best to get some more detailed photos. Maybe they could go towards solving the mystery.

5 comments:

  1. Wreck belonged to a Bill Smith who ran a fibreglass boat repair business also poet and broadcaster on local radio. He lived on the boat
    I think it sank around 1979-80.
    I would think the boat weighed considerably more than the tonnage quoted as it was some 100 ft long.
    I think it was formerly owned by the King family and it may at some point been involved in a collision with the chain ferry in Southampton, possibly in 1960's

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  2. Thanks for the info. It certainly looks around 100ft long. The possible collision with the chain ferry - known locally as the Floating Bridge - is interesting, I used to spend many an evening going backwards and forwards on that, that would have been early 70s though.

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  3. Hi - My father Bob Parker owned Terminist BM321 in the 1950s or early 60s i will ask him if he has any info that may help to identify the wreck

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  4. the number on the boat seems to read bm132 to me from viewing other photos and seeing the remains first hand on saturday night. Which according to the brixham sailing trawler heritage makes it "OUR NELLIE" ?

    SEE LINK:

    http://www.freedom-computers.co.uk/zone6/results.html?site_search_results_1=bm132&depth=0

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  5. This is the boat from http://www.hwtma.org.uk/uploads/documents/Archaeological%20Projects/HambleHLFProjectReport2.pdf

    The Brixham Heritage Museum archives recorded BM137 as being a 90ft
    Admiralty MFV, which after the Second World War was registered as the ‘Ala’
    (Mike Miller pers. com. Dec 2007). The Lloyds List and the Mercantile Navy
    List were researched for further information about this vessel. The Ala was
    built in Wivenhoe, Essex in 1944. Its dimensions were 88.8’ (27m) long, 22.5’
    (6.9m) breadth, 9.9’ (3m) depth of hold and registered tonnage of 59 net and
    123 gross.

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