Ship Rock

The waters around Selsey Bill, West Sussex, have long been a hazardous place for sailors and from Roman times to modern day, many vessels have been lost in passing this headland.  This project looks at two unidentified vessels that were wrecked as they navigated around the bill.

In 2014 as part of the Southsea Sub-Aqua Club’s successful Mulberry 70 project, we surveyed a site which was reported in Dive Sussex as ‘likely to be associated with the Mulberry Harbour project’. The reality was very different, what appeared to be the wreck of a small wooden vessel carrying either ballast or cargo of rock/stone. A further documentary investigation identified another wreck in the area which may help us understand the wrecks and their cargo.

With the support of a grant from the British Sub-Aqua Jubilee Trust members of SSAC have conducted a number of dives on both sites to learn more about these wooden vessels, their construction and cargo in an attempt to find out more about their voyage and their loss.

Click here to download the final report