The Wreck of the Clarendon West Indiaman, At the moment she struck on the Shingles, in Chale Bay, Isle of Wight, From a sketch made on the spot by W Daniell, R.A
SHIPWRECKS
SS Carbon. Credit: Alfie in the Air
St. Catherines and Chale Bay recorded 14 shipwrecks wrecks in a single night in 1757, and 270 between 1830 and 1900, indicative of not only the treacherous waters and strange tides off the south coast of the Island, but also how busy these shipping lanes were with everyday boat traffic.
If you want to see the wreck of the Clarendon you only need go to the Wight Mouse Inn for a drink or meal as the pub was partially built from the timbers of the infamous ship that foundered in Chale Bay in 1836. Traveling back from St Kitts with a cargo of sugar, molasses and rum, the ship had 11 passengers and 17 crew but on the morning of 11th October 1836 she hit the beach at Blackgang in a gale, rolled onto her side and broke up in less than 10 minutes. Local fisherman, John Wheeler, tied a rope round his waist, gave the end to a mate, and plunged into the surf, saving three crewmen. But everyone else, including a family with four daughters aged between nine months and eighteen, were drowned or killed by timbers in the pounding surf. Eighteen of the dead are buried in Chale churchyard.
At spring tides at Compton Beach you can see the remains of the tug boat Carbon that hit the rocks in 1947 when the towing line snapped while she was being towed from Portland to Southampton for salvage. She was not worth anything in salvage so was left to rot and there is less of her to see every year.
Another tug, the Harry Sharman, foundered off Culver Cliff in 1970 during the Pacific Glory incident when attempts were being made to re-float the stricken oil tanker that burned off shore for many days. All on board the tug were saved but pieces of it still sit at the base of the chalk cliffs.
St Catherine's oratory
It is likely that the oratory, completed in 1328, was erected by Walter de Godeton, a local landowner who was condemned by the Church for stealing casks of wine from a shipwreck which had occurred in 1314 off Chale Bay.
The ship was one of a fleet carrying a cargo of white wine for the monastery of Livers in Picardy. The Church threatened de Godeton with excommunication unless he built a lighthouse above the scene of the shipwreck, together with an adjoining oratory.
The oratory was to be endowed to maintain a priest to tend the light and to say masses for souls lost at sea. The duties were apparently carried out until the Reformation in the 16th century.
BRONZE AGE BARROW
At a distance of 15 metres (49 feet) to the south-east of the tower is a much earlier monument, a Bronze Age bowl barrow, or burial mound, which was constructed on this hilltop site about 4,000 years ago.
Bowl barrows consisted of a mound of turf, soil or rock, covering one or more burials, and usually surrounded by a circular ditch from which the mound material may have been quarried.
This barrow, which is 20 metres (66 feet) in diameter and 2 metres (6 feet) high, was partially excavated in 1925, when human and animal bones and flint tools were discovered.
At some time during the medieval period, possibly during the construction of the oratory, a lime kiln was built into the side of the barrow. To the south are pits and mounds which may have resulted from mining chalk to provide lime for the kiln.
