Dorset History - The Wreck of the Halsewell

Gazing across the Purbecks on a warm summer's afternoon it's hard to believe that over the years it has become a graveyard for innumerable sailing ships.

The sad fate of the Halsewell, an Eastindiaman returning from Madras in 1784, is just one example. Its fate aroused the sympathy of the nation and inspired several painters including Turner. 
On board, as well as her crew, she carried a company of soldiers and a number of passengers, including the captain's daughters. It was to be Captain Pearce's last voyage before retiring.
Entering the Channel, she was met by a tremendous storm and leaking badly the vessel was eventually driven against the cliffs at Seacombe near Worth Matravers.

By luck the ship washed broadside against a natural cave in the 

cliff face allowing many to scramble to apparent safety. The cliff above them, though, was almost impossible to climb especially in such atrocious conditions. Only two sailors

made it to the clifftop to alert the local villagers, while those left behind gradually succumbed to cold and exhaustion and were washed away into the broiling sea. Eighty two were rescued and by the morning 160 people had perished in the freezing waters including the captain who chose death rather than abandoning his two young daughters aboard the sinking ship.

The ship, soon turned to matchwood and sank without trace. The bodies that were recovered reputedly lie buried in mass graves on the cliff tops, the only individually recorded soul appearing in the burial register of Worth Matravers having been washed up some weeks later.
Death, though did not end the crew's troubles as this letter to the Times witnessed:

Public sympathy ran so high that George III himself, holidaying in nearby Weymouth, visited the spot to pay his respects and gave a reward of £100 in appreciation of the efforts of the local villagers.

It is an ill wind, though...and the site has become a treasure trove of artefacts from the cargo of the ship, everything from a pair of cufflinks depicting one of the earliest flights by balloon, to the ship’s hourglass which miraculously survived, cushioned and entangled in seaweed.