The wreck of a ship which sank more than 200 years ago has been granted special protection by the government.
The Earl of Abergavenny sank off the coast of Weymouth, Dorset, with the loss of some 250 lives, in what is considered one of the UK’s worst maritime disasters. It was carrying more than 60 chests of silver bullion that have never been found.
John Wordsworth, the brother of renowned Romantic poet William Wordsworth, was the ship’s captain.
The 1,300-tonne ship set sail from Portsmouth to Bengal and China in 1805 but during a storm it struck a sandbank and foundered about a mile off the shores of Weymouth.
On the recommendation of Historic England, the government gave the wreck special protected status on Wednesday. This means the site, which includes planking, frames, fixtures and fittings, can be dived on but should remain untouched.
“We can’t protect shipwrecks against tides and ocean currents, but we can protect them against human activity”, Duncan Wilson, Chief Executive of Historic England, told Radio 4’s Today programme.
David Carter from the Portland Museum in Dorset was among those who discovered the wreck and welcomed its new protected status. He described the Earl of Abergavenny as the “finest and largest” of the East India Company ships. The ship was built to collect tea from China, Mr Wilson said
Source: BBC
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