Divers from Bournemouth University have uncovered evidence which finally reveals the identity of a Victorian ship wrecked off the coast near Swanage in Dorset more than 120 years ago.
The remains of a 24 metre vessel lying off St Alban’s Head was first discovered in 1990, but has since been referred to only as the Pin Wreck because of a number of bronze pins and rivets which were found scattered around the ship’s remains.

The anchor of the sunken Pin Wreck, first discovered in 1990
Military buttons and a diver’s boot
Now maritime archaeologists at Bournemouth University have been able to identify the wreck, date it and trace it to Portsmouth Dockyard – and say with certainty that it sank during the great Swanage storm of September 1903.
Other articles found around the wreck included fragments of ceramics, brass military tunic buttons and a diver’s boot, originally leading to the find being dated back to the 1880s.
But recent dives by maritime archaeologists from Bournemouth University and research help from Dorset wreck detectives Sheilah and Martin Openshaw have since revealed new information.
It is now believed that the Pin Wreck is actually an Admiralty flat bottomed barge called a lighter. These were vessels which were towed by tugs and carried cranes used for moving heavy loads, to lay moorings and in salvage work.
And research work by the Openshaws has even painted a picture of the fateful day in September 1903 that the lighter sank in stormy seas off Swanage.

The Pin Wreck’s capstan helped university divers identify broadly what sort of vessel had sunk
All 30 men on board were saved
The lighter, which was never named, but given the codename YC8 in the historic Portsmouth Dockyard where it was based, had 30 men on board while it was being towed to Portland
The summer of 1903 had been one of the worst on record to that point, and while the start of September brought a few days which reached nearly 30 degrees Centigrade, the weather changed dramatically on Thursday 10th September.
North easterly winds whipped up a severe gale in Swanage Bay and led to YC8 foundering off St Alban’s Head, its crew miraculously all managing to transfer to the tug before the lighter sank.
Dave Parham, professor of maritime archaeology at Bournemouth University who has led the investigation, said that a lot of new information about the Pin Wreck has now been brought to life.

The HMS Eurydice, which sank in Sandown Bay in 1878 and is still said to haunt the Isle of Wight
Disaster witnessed by Winston Churchill
Dave Parham said:
“We knew that the wreck includes a large steam capstan (a spinning vertical cylinder used for pulling heavy objects with a rope) on its stern, driven by a steam engine that lies just in front of the capstan, admiralty mooring buoys, chain and anchors – that much is clear from the wreckage
“The Pin Wreck, named after hundreds of metal bolts which lie around it, was discovered off the coast of St Albans Head in 1990, constructed of wood with yellow metal sheathings and lying at a depth of around 27 metres.
“We now know that it is the YC8 Admiralty mooring lighter, which was built in 1866 and is thought to have been used in the salvage operation of HMS Eurydice off the Isle of Wight in 1878.
“Eurydice was a 26-gun Royal Navy corvette, the victim of one of Britain’s worst peacetime naval disasters when she sank in 1878 in Sandown Bay.
“Only two of the ship’s 319 crew survived and one of the witnesses to the disaster was Winston Churchill, then a toddler who was living at Ventnor with his family.”

The pin wreck was named after hundreds of metal bolts, like these still in situ, were found on the seabed
“It is vital that we preserve it”
Dave Parham added:
“This is a rare example of a type of service vessel which was essential for maintaining the operations of Britain’s ports in the nineteenth century, so it is vital that we preserve it.
“Its identity has remained a mystery for three decades but what we observed on our dive meant we could find the clues that could reveal the secrets of the wreck and understand how it ended up on the seabed.
“The materials the vessel is made from suggest a high quality build, possibly linked to a Royal dockyard.
“The fact it appears to have been lost in service and was carrying substantial haulage equipment means it could offer valuable insight into the role these craft played in our maritime history.
“We have now applied to the government for the wreck to be designated as a protected site.”

Divers from Bournemouth University’s marine archaeology department work on a wreck
Crucial piece of the puzzle
The Bournemouth team dived the wreck in 2019 having viewed objects that had been recovered from the site in the 1990s by Nigel Bryant, a former employee of the university.
These objects included a ceramic fragment attached to a large pulley block marked ‘Portsmouth Dockyard’.
It was evident during the dive that the layout of the wreck suggested that it was a mooring lighter and the finds recovered from it suggested that it had a mid-19th century naval origin.
Research in the National Archives uncovered plans of two identical lighters from Portsmouth Dockyard, named YC 5 and YC8. These were the only vessels whose precise details matched that of the wreck, but there was no record of their loss.
A crucial piece of the puzzle was then found in a copy of the Shipping Gazette from Friday 11th September 1903, which reported the sinking of a mooring lighter off St Alban’s Head in rough weather while on tow from Portsmouth to Portland.

Sheilah and Martin Openshaw gave a talk on their work in Purbeck at Wareham Library in November 2022
Dedication to Purbeck maritime history
Later, Sheilah and Martin Openshaw worked with the Bournemouth team to find a reference to the lighter lost in September 1903 which confirmed the wreck’s identity as that of YC8.
The Openshaws, who spent their retirement diving the Dorset coast to record historic finds, have previously identified remains of a plane found in Worbarrow Bay as a German World War Two Messerschmitt fighter.
They even managed to discover the identities of the pilots who flew it, the RAF ace who shot it down and the intended target of the bombing raid on the day that the Battle of Britain was fought over Purbeck.
The latest mystery that the couple have helped to solve underlines the debt owed to them in their dedication to Purbeck maritime history.

Martin and Sheilah about to take another dive off the coast at Kimmeridge