Wreck of English barge, 'Shawford', Maplin Sands (EHER 82547)

1956 wreck of English barge which stranded 0.4 miles WSW of Blacktail Spit green buoy on the Maplin Sands, while en route from Colchester to the River Thames with a cargo of sand. Built of steel in Blyth in 1915, as a WW1 landing craft, she was an engine driven vessel. Status: Casualty

NRHE data transfer: The vessel had been charted by the UK Hydrographic Office (Source 1) as the SHAWFORD, 'entire wreck' in approximate position 51°31.37N, 00°056.02E [OSGB], but no remains of her were found in a 1964 echo-sounder survey, following dispersal work in 1962 when she was `'clear to ground level.' The status of her UKHO record position was thus amended to DEAD. It is now known whether any small fragments of the wreck are present in the vicinity. <1> 'Stranded.' <2> Source 3 lists the SHAWFORD as a former X-lass lighter, 'nicknamed "Black Beetles", designed by Walter Pollock, naval architect of James Pollock and Sons Limited... [built as an emergency measure during WW1] and born out of the need for basic, shallow-draft powered "landing craft"... many equipped with a hand-operated ramp extended over the spoon-shaped bow, while others were completed as water tankers and later saw service as fuel tankers. The first batches, completed in 1915 were towed to the Mediterranean in time to see service in the ill-fated Gallipoli campaign... They were among the earliest small craft to be equipped with oil engines, the majority with the "hot bulb" engine by Bolinders...' They were not built by the Pollock shipyard, and most were "sold post-1918 and saw long service as dry cargo... vessels in the short sea and estuarial trades, especially on the Thames and Medway.' Built: 1915. <2> <3> Where built: Blyth. <2> <3> Builder: Blyth Drydock and Ship Building Company Limited. <2> <3> LBD: 33.52 x 6.43 x 2.43m. <2> Tonnage: 138 grt <2>; 186 grt. <3> Propulsion: Screw-driven 4SA 3-cylinder engine <2>; '2 cylinder 'hot bulb' Oil engine by J. & C. G. Bolinders Co., Stockholm.' <3> Ownership/vessel history: 1915 - 1916, Named X.83 and owned by British Admiralty. 'Wrecked at Conil 13 miles S of Cadiz and wreck sold to John Viale, Gibraltar and refloated.' <2> 1923 Re-named the SHAWFORD. <3> 1937 Re-engined with 3cyl. oil engine by Humboldt-Deutzmotoren, Koln. <3> 1940 - 1951 owned by JJ Prior (Transport) Limited, London. <3> 1954 - owned by JJ Prior (Transport) Limited, Toronto. <3> 1954 - 'Wrecked on Maplin Sands'. <3> Sources <4> and <5> show photographs of two other former X-class lighters. Date of loss qualifier: Actual date of loss Additional sources cited in Shipwreck Index of the British Isles: Lloyds Casualty Report 1956 p20; Lloyds Register 1956-7 No.77450(S). <2> Note: The mapped location is a generic location used by the NRHE.