More wrecks than anywhere else

[SolomonKey]

Why, yet it lives there uncheck'd that Antonio hath
a ship of rich lading wrecked on the narrow seas;
the Goodwins, I think they call the place; a very
dangerous flat and fatal, where the carcasses of many
a tall ship lie buried, as they say, if my gossip
Report be an honest woman of her word.
The Merchant of Venice, Act 3 Scene 1 - William Shakespeare

The Margate Sands contain a couple of hundrend or so wrecks and the Goodwin Sands maybe 600-800, so I would guess that this small area off Thanet (Kent, England) contains more wrecks than anywhere else.

http://coolasmustard.com/misc/Margate Sands.kmz

Goodwin Sands, stretch of shoals and sandbars, c.10 mi (20 km) long, lying off the east coast of Kent, SE England. It forms a breakwater E of The Downs, a roadstead. Shipwrecks were formerly frequent on the Sands. The shifting sands do not allow the construction of lighthouses, but there are several lightships and numerous buoys. Traditionally, the Sands were once a fertile isle called Lomea, the property of Godwin, earl of Wessex; Lomea was submerged by a great storm in the late 11th cent.

Goodwin Sands: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodwin_Sands

A remote sensing image of a wreck site in the Goodwin Sands.

Some images from the Goodwin Sands:
http://www.mikefoto.co.uk/Goodwin Sands/index.htm

 

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[SolomonKey]

Thanks, Doc!

The Fighting Temeraire, tugged to her Last Berth to be broken up, 1838 -John Turner

Turner painted many of his seascapes from here. TS Eliot wrote The Waste Land here and Charles Dickens wrote some of his masterpieces whilst in Broadstairs, just around the corner from Margate. The name Margate is from the French: gateway to the sea, as this is the last land going seaward from London. Broadstairs gained her name from the steps used by marines, sailors and soldiers embarking and disembarking Royal Naval ships.

Seabathing started here (mid-1700s) and the Royal Seabathing Hospital closed only a few years ago.

The Sands, upon which so many ships have foundered, are clearly visible from the end of my road at low tide. Shipwrecking was big business until reclamation stopped Thanet being an island. So was piracy and bootlegging. The pubs and clubs of the town today are linked by huge caverns once used for illicit cargo.

The mission of St Augustine began here in 597 CE. England began in Thanet, with the arrival of Horsa and Hengist. The Viking 'Great Army' of 865 wintered here before commencing a twelve-year campaign.

The shipwrecks go back into prehistory.

If you ever travel this way, Doc, I'd be pleased to show you the history.