Although nobody would wish a ship to be wrecked, I am sure that many of us would admit to feelings of excitement and expectation when one does, especially if it happens right on your own doorstep. Jennycliffe has in the past been the scene of many strandings, and of course more recently the Noordzee lay sunk there for over a year before she was eventually salvaged, much to the disappointment of many local divers. However, for ships in trouble, Jennycliffe Bay provides a very sheltered anchorage, and with the violent storms that we seem to be experiencing more often nowadays, it was not long before another damaged ship crept into the shelter of Jennycliffe Bay, capsized and promptly sank.

Yes, its a porthole.

On the night of 21 November 1984 the small cargo vessel Fylrix was on its way from Dean quarry bound for London with a cargo of granite chippings. Whilst off the Eddystone light, some of the cargo shifted and the Fylrix developed a severe list to st’bd; The Master decided to head for the safety of Plymouth, and was escorted into the Sound by a Royal Navy frigate. As the Fylrix approached Jennycliffe the list became much worse and it became obvious to all that the ship would soon sink. In the early hours of the following morning the entire crew abandoned the ship as it started to capsize, and the Fylrix sank in shallow water about one hundred yards offshore.

Lying on its side.

No attempt was made to salvage the vessel and soon she was declared a constructive total loss. The Fylrix now lies on her st’bd side with her stem pointing towards the shore. At high tide she is completely covered, but at low water her port side is completely clear of the water, and you can get on board by simply stepping out of your boat. It is best to be careful, however as just below the surface is a mass of rigging from the radar mast, and it would be very easy to foul your propellor. On a ship this modern, it comes as a surprise to find that all the portholes are made of brass instead of the more usual steel or aluminium. Some of the portholes are hanging open and so it is very easy just to peer into the cabins, although the portholes are too small to enter the ship by.

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Flyrix ‘The Movie’ Local tele doing a bit on my books.” width=”100%”>

Flyrix ‘The Movie’ Local tele doing a bit on my books.

If you want to get right inside, simply go to the bridge and drop right through the door. The toilet is on the left, Captain’s cabin to the right. Of course if you wish to go right inside the Captain’s cabin, or the engine room, then you will have to get properly kitted up as snorkeling inside this wreck is definitely not recommended. So what is it like inside? Well it might sound silly but my over riding thought was how clean and tidy everything was. I kept expecting the crew to arrive back at any moment. In fact the Fylrix is the only wreck that I have been on where you think that you are on the film set of the Marie Celeste. In the Captain’s cabin for instance, all the books were on the shelf, bed still made, and photographs still on the walls, sorry bulk- heads. There was even soap and toilet paper in the loo. It was as if everybody had gone out to lunch. Come to think of it I suppose that is exactly what did happen, only nobody ever came back.

Pete Barraclough (presenter with cup) and the film crew.

On the outside, the wreck is still completely intact right down to her radar. The granite chippings which caused the capsize in the first place are still left inside the holds, so it is not a good idea to go crawling around inside, as the chippings could quite easily move and cover you. Just off the bridge a lifeboat has broken loose from its davit and is only prevented from shooting to the surface by a restraining wire at the top of the winch unit. Over the rest of the seabed are strewn all kinds of debris. Fire extinguishers, hanks of rope, pieces of wire hawser, broken stanchions, and quite a few pieces of crockery. Judging by the number of divers that swarm over the Fylrix at the weekends, I should not be surprised to find lots of diving knives and the odd mask and snorkle as well. Very soon I should think that anything that can be removed will be, and the only thing of value left will be the beautiful bronze propellor.

The Lads from ‘Bovi’ geting ready to blow.

If only the Fylrix had gone down on the Tinker reef. What a dive she would have made. As it is you have to contend with hordes of divers banging and chipping away, inflate- abIes churning up the water, and curious board sailors bumping into her upturned hull. It is almost as frustrating as a traffic jam. Never mind, in the evening on a high tide when everyone has gone home, you can pretend that the Fylrix is in a hundred feet of water and puzzle out how to lift that beautiful bronze propeller.

Someone undid this screw.

Shortly after I took this photo of the Flyrix prop, a very professional ‘team’ snuck down and had it away.

Soon the Flyrix started to break up and after a diver was killed in distressing circumstances, he got lost in the wreck and ran out of air, it was descided to blow it up to disperse the wreck and make it less dangerous.

Today there is still quite a bit left, but its basically now just scrap. The glory days have gone.

When I was a child some of my favourite stories were about the great Australian grain races, and the Tea Clippers sailing across the oceans from China. The photographs and drawings of these huge sailing ships fascinated me, and no doubt countless others, because today, ‘Tall Ships’, as they are now called, draw enthusiastic crowds in much the same way that steam trains do. People nowadays put this crowd pulling down to nostalgia, but even in their heyday these massive sailing ships with their graceful lines and billowing sails drew even bigger crowds, and many had songs and stories woven around their legendary voyages.

The wreck of the Hertzogin Cecelie.

Probably the very last of these ships to be wrecked on the south coast of England was the Herzogin Cecilie, or as she was more affectionately known, the Duchess. She was a four masted steel barque built by Rickmers of Bremerhaven in 1902 as a school ship for the North German Lloyd Line, and was 314 feet long with a gross tonnage of 3242 tons. When the Great War started the Herzogin Cecilie was interned in Chile for the duration, and afterwards she was allocated to France by the War Reparations Board. The Germans tried to repurchase her but were turned down flat, and eventually she passed into Finnish ownership, being bought and commanded by Captain Gustaf Erickson of Mariehamn. Under his ownership the Herzogin Cecilie carried cargo’s all over the world, but it was the Australian Grain Races that made her famous, winning eight of them in succession.

In 1936 the ‘Duchess’ started what was to be her last voyage and her last Grain Race. From Port Lincon in Australia to Falmouth took her just 86 days, comfortable beating her nearest rival, the Pommern, by seven whole days. Her orders at Falmouth were to proceed to Ipswich to discharge her cargo of grain, but two days later, early on the morning of the 25 January, in thick fog and rough seas the Herzogin Cecilie struck the Hamstone just a few miles from Salcombe. Holed in the forpeak, the ship pounded fiercely then settled by her head with her well decks awash.

Coastguards rigging a rope ladder.

When dawn broke just about everybody and his aunt had turned up to view the wreck, and quite a lot thought that they should also go on board. This considerable hampered the rescue operation, but in the end the Salcombe lifeboat took off twenty-two of the crew, leaving just the Captain, his wife, and six crewmembers. A breeches buoy was rigged up to take off all the luggage and personal belongings, but most of this was quickly stolen when it landed by members of the public, who had by now degenerated into something of a mob.

Inside one of the metal tunnels.

For seven weeks the Herzogin Cecilie lay stranded on the Hamstone whilst her four and a half thousand tons of grain rotted and fermented. The stench was appalling and fears of it polluting the beaches around Salcombe kept the owner and the local council arguing fit to bust. Every day huge crowds gathered to view the ‘Duchess’ and local farmers made a fortune charging people to cross their land for a better look. Eventually the grain became so swollen that it started to crack the decks, and this seemed to galvanise the salvage attempts. By 7 June enough of her rotting cargo had been removed to allow the installation of powerful pumps, and on each high tide tugs repeatedly attempted to pull her off. At first it looked as if the ‘Duchess’ was stuck fast, but finally, on 19 June the Herzogin Cecilie floated clear of the Hamstone. The local council still would not let her be towed into Salcombe, fearing all manner of disease, so in the end the ‘Duchess’ was beached in Starhole Bay just at the entrance to the harbour. Unfortunately what appeared to be a ‘safe’ sandy bottom, concealed rocks, and in the July gales she broke her back and her masts soon tumbled down into the sea. It was the beginning of the end. Ironically, if the Salcombe authorities had allowed her into harbour she would have been saved unloaded and on her way long before the gales came. As it was the thing that the council feared most happened. The grain washed out of the wreck and fetched up on all the beaches. However it didn’t cause any pollution because the seagulls eat most of it, and the rest got washed away. So much for the experts.

The Duchess was refloated and towed around to Starehole Bay.

In the ensuing months all the fittings were stripped from the wreck, the beautiful figurehead sent to a museum in Finland, and the remains sold to a local scrap merchant for the princely sum of £225. A sorry end for a marvellous ship.

Today at low tide, the remains of the ‘Duchess’ just about show. In the summer there is always a buoy attached to the wreck, (at the bows) and it is prominently marked on all the carts, so you really cannot miss it. Still if you do, just ask. Everybody knows about her, and most will be glad to point her out. The wreckage lies in less than 25 feet of water on a sandy bottom, and I had been told that there was just a jumble of iron plates, and that the wreck was hardly worth diving on. Not so. The Herzogin Cecilie must be one of the prettiest wreck sites going. Part of the bows is angled over to form a sort of cave into which you can easily swim to play with the many wrasse that lurk there. Stray light twinkles in from various small jagged holes backlighting the interior with a soft glow. Marvellous for underwater photography. There is a huge amount of iron plating and decking lying across the sand and also pushed down into the sand. There is still quite a lot of material from which the sails were made buried in the sand, but what I really like about this wreck are the tunnels. Various parts of the deck and hull have fallen down in such a way as to make iron tunnels along the sand. They are not really that long and you can usually see to the end, but they are a bit special. In the tunnels, the seaweed catches the light and the current as it wafts in and out of the ragged openings, along with a myriad of small fish. It really is most enjoyable, and on one dive we all spent at least twenty minutes just swimming in and out of these tunnels. The rest of the wreck stretches out along the bay, and it is still possible to find wooden decking, and the iron pulleys that once held the ropes that hoisted up the great sails.

The beginning of the end.

It’s a great jigsaw of a wreck, and you can either put it together, or just poke and prod about. The Herzogin Cecilie will always be remembered as one of the great square riggers, but it is as a wreck that she really lives up to her old nickname, the ‘Duchess’ a real charmer.

This book tells you all about the Wreck, click the image to learn more

The Hertzogin Cecillie was the last of the truly great clipper ships and when she was breaking up in Starehole Bay thousands came to mourn her passing.

The ‘Duchess’ being built at Bremerhaven.

We have three stories . One is about the wrecking of the ‘Duchess’ as she was known. One is the eyewitness account of a survivor, and one is about the man who was at the helm when the great ship struck the Hamstone.

The Wreck of the Herzogin Cecilie

Diana Woolner, a survivor’s tale

Per Hjelt, the helmsman’s tale

Buy the Wreckers Guide To South West Devon Part 2 for Kindle at Amazon.co.uk

The south western coast of England has no lack of shipwrecks, and this second volume of The Wreckers Guide To South West Devon traces the history, fate and rediscovery by scuba divers of another collection of wrecks around Plymouth. Packed full of rare archive photos and previously obscure information trawled from maritime history records, each wreck featured in The Wrecker’s Guide has been dived extensively by author Peter Mitchell, providing first hand insight into what remains and what these shipwrecks can still tell us of their past.

Buy the Wreckers Guide To South West Devon Part 2 for Kindle at Amazon.co.uk

This book is available in Kindle format. There is currently no print edition available. Note: You don’t need an actual Kindle device to read The Plymouth Breakwater – you can read it on your PC, Mac, iPad, and many other devices using the free Kindle software available from Amazon. Simply download the free Kindle software and purchase the Kindle book and you can then read it on your favourite device without needing a Kindle. Download Kindle for PC, Kindle for Mac, Kindle for iPad and more from Amazon.co.uk

The Wreckers Guide To South West Devon Part 2 contains complete histories, photos and wreck location marks for the following wrecks – those underlined appear on this site.

• Foyle
• Oregon
• Rosehill
• Submarine A7
• the Wreck With No Name
• Barquentine
• San Pedro El Mayor
• Maine
• Cantabria
• Charter
• Jane Rowe
• Blesk
• Liberta
• Halloween
• Riversdale
• Soudan
• Herzogin Cecillie
• Heye-P

Buy the Wreckers Guide To South West Devon Part 1 for Kindle at Amazon.co.uk

An authoritative insight into the most famous shipwrecks around the UK’s southern coastline, The Wrecker’s Guide To South West Devon Part 1 provides detailed stories and scores of rare archive photographs of the ships that still continue to fascinate scuba divers today. Drawing on his 30 years of experience exploring these shipwrecks firsthand underwater, Peter Mitchell has unearthed previously obscure facts and photos about each ship, how they met their fate and brought to light the stories and lessons they left behind.

Buy the Wreckers Guide To South West Devon Part 1 for Kindle at Amazon.co.uk

This book is available in Kindle format. There is currently no print edition available. Note: You don’t need an actual Kindle device to read The Plymouth Breakwater – you can read it on your PC, Mac, iPad, and many other devices using the free Kindle software available from Amazon. Simply download the free Kindle software and purchase the Kindle book and you can then read it on your favourite device without needing a Kindle.

Download Kindle for PC, Kindle for Mac, Kindle for iPad and more from Amazon.co.uk