Friends of the Museum of Somerset was pleased to welcome back to its March Zoom meeting Philip Browne, who gave a ‘prequel’ to the fascinating talk he had given in 2020 about the dramatic shipwreck of the Halsewell East Indiaman.

Philip began his talk by taking the Friends on a virtual tour of the ship, so they could understand what it was like to travel on such a vessel. It had set off from Gravesend on New Year’s Day 1786, heading for Calcutta and Madras, a voyage which should have taken six months, but ended in tragedy after only six days. Initially they were becalmed, then a snowstorm started which became a violent storm.

By the time a leak was discovered, five feet of water was in the hold. Pumping had no effect, the water just kept flooding in. To reduce the weight of the ship, the captain ordered that the mizzen mast - the smallest of the three - should be cut away, but this made no difference, and so the main mast had to go as well. Although the wind had dropped, the ship was now rolling violently, and the remaining foremast was lost overboard. The crew were able to cobble together a jury mast and the ship turned back to try to reach Weymouth, but the storm returned and blew them onto the rocks below a cliff on the Isle of Purbeck. Out of more than 240 crew and passengers, only 74 survived.

Philip showed members images of the objects recovered from the wreck over the years, some of which are held by Dorchester Museum. The wreck remains where it sank to this day.

The next online meeting of the Friends of the Museum of Somerset is on Tuesday, April 19, at 7.30pm when Mary Chisholm will talk about Historic Graffiti at Montacute. Guests are welcome - for details, email [email protected]

Lauraine Newcombe