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| Amidships amongst the ribs |
The sand levels change over the months so you never quite know what you are going to see. Viz is rare. Best dived neap high water. This was filmed in September.
Built in Hamburg October 1874 the German Iron hulled Polynesia was just shy of 60m in length and just over 1000gross tons
On her final voyage from Chile bound for Hamburg she ran ashore just to the west of Birling Gap at 06.15 am in a dense fog on the 24th April 1890
Commanded by Captain Raitman she was fully rigged and had a full cargo of Nitrate of Soda, otherwise known as fertilizer!
News of the ship ashore was sent to Newhaven but the Lifeboat wasn't raised until nearly 11am, news didn't travel as fast in those days.
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| Dead eye |
As soon as the maroons were fired the lifeboat, Michael Henry was on it's way to rescue, depending on what account you read 16 or 20 men!
Mr J Bull, Lloyds agent in Newhaven, quickly followed in the tug 'Tipper'. Efforts were made all day by the Tipper and a pleasure steamer called 'Nelson' to pull the Polynesia free but with no luck.
As the tide receded the crew were taken onboard the lifeboat and taken to Newhaven.
Next day the weather had moderated from a force 4 and the tug Tipper and steamer Nelson were again on site to try and free the ship. They had towed lighters behind them to offload some of the Nitrate into.
Captain Brewer, I'm not sure who he was, possibly the Tipper or Nelsons captain or someone from the Salvage association , said the following day that a favorable arrangement had been made for storing the nitrate with the railway company before transporting it at 25shillings a ton.
There had been to much swell the day before to determine quite how much damage had been done to the Polynesias bottom but, she was firmly wedged into the chalk now.
What he did know though was that there was 6ft of water in the vessel and he had pumps engaged to keep the water down every time the tide came in. The Polynesias crew had come back onboard and were taking down the sails and offloading anything that could help lighten the ship.
Captain Brewer finishes his telegram with the words 'Bad Case'...
By early May a Mr Cullen, who was I'm assuming in charge of a salvage team working on the Polynesia, informed Captain Brewer that he had given up on saving the ship and while returning to Dover in the tug Lady Vita had noticed the vessel had righted herself a little and was moving.
He decided to try and tow the ship to Newhaven so with pumps running they proceeded to tow her to Newhaven but only got as far as Cuckmere Haven as she was filling faster than the pumps could work.
They beached her on the sandy bottom of Cuckmere and reassessed the situation, still believing they could get her to Newhaven.
All the cargo by this time had been removed and Captain Reitman was sending the bill for all the loading and transport of goods to the owner Mr Laeisz in Hamburg.
Captain Brewer was back on the scene next day and it was found the ships bottom was not as badly damaged as first thought and there was still a chance so, they cut away the masts but still she did not fully righten.
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| One of the masts thrown overboard |
It's unclear when a gale hit but the last telegram to Lloyds from Captain Brewer said "Polynesia- broken, yesterday's gale"
And that was it, no chance of saving the ship and that's where she remains.
On the 23rd of May at Newhaven an auction was held to sell off various materials saved from the ship which were stored at Birling Gap, Cuckmere and Newhaven including the ship itself, 'as she lies, stranded at Cuckmere Haven'
Dive Sussex claims Polynesia was a steamer and that her boilers are possibly what are laying a short distance to the East.
The Manchester Courier gives a brief mention of the Polynesia and also claims it's a steamer.
There was at the time two ships named Polynesia, both built in Hamburg but at different times and by different builders.
The other one was a steamer and with a quick look in Lloyds it is easy to mistake the two. No doubt a reporter at the Manchester Courier did exactly that!
This one was definitely a sailing ship, no steam involved.
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| Bow with hawser- fallen forward onto its nose! |
The other boilers Kendall mentions in his book are from the Millgate and either the Fairfax or Oushla , looking at the size of the boiler that's sat by itself it's probably from the Fairfax as the Oushlas boiler is sat on the rocks and seems smaller. He also mentions a possible U boat. I don't know of any Uboat sunk there but possibly a look in bad viz someone may have once thought the mast just to the South of the main wreck was a uboat.
