The Goodwin Sands are a 10-mile long sand bank in the English Channel, lying six miles east of Deal in Kent, England. A shoal or sandbar (also called sandbank) is a somewhat Linear Landform within or extending into a body of Water, Deal is a Town in Kent, England. It lies on the English Channel eight miles north-east of Dover. KENT (1400 AM) is a Radio station broadcasting a Adult Standards/MOR format England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland More than 2,000 ships are believed to have been wrecked upon them and as a result, they are marked by numerous lightships and buoys. Notable shipwrecks include the VOC ship Rooswijk, Stirling Castle and the South Goodwin Lightship. The Rooswijk was a ship belonging to the VOC ( Dutch East India Company) that according to recent non-contemporary news reports sank in 1740 Wreck HMS Stirling Castle was wrecked on the Goodwin Sands in the Great Storm of 1703.
There is currently a lightship on the end of the sands, on the farthest part out to warn ships. A lightvessel, or lightship, is a Ship which acts as a Lighthouse. The sands were once covered by two lighthouses on the Kent mainland, one each at the north and south ends of the sands. A lighthouse is a Tower, building or framework designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or in older times from a fire and used as an The southern lighthouse is now owned by the National Trust, and the northern one is still in operation. South Foreland Lighthouse is a Victorian Lighthouse on The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, usually known as the National Trust, is a conservation organization in England, Wales North Foreland and South Foreland are two Chalk headlands on the east Kent coast of southern England.
An annual cricket match was until recently played on the sands at low tide. Cricket is a bat-and-ball team Sport that originated in England and is now played in more than 100 countries Characteristics A tide is a repeated cycle of sea level changes in the following stages Over several hours the water rises or advances up a beach in the flood
When hovercraft ran from Dover they used to make occasional trips to the sands. Dover is a town and major ferry port in the county of Kent, England.
A crew filming for BBC television series Coast had to be rescued by the Ramsgate lifeboat when they experienced dificulty in 2006. Coast is a BBC documentary series first broadcast on BBC Two in 2005. Ramsgate is a seaside town on the Isle of Thanet in east Kent, England.
Several naval battles have been fought nearby, including the Battle of Goodwin Sands in 1652 and the Battle of Dover Strait in 1917. A naval battle is a Battle fought using Ships or other waterborne vessels The naval Battle of Goodwin Sands (also known as the Battle of Dover) fought on 29 May 1652 ( 19 May 1652 in the Julian Calendar The Battle of Dover Strait was a Naval battle of World War I, fought in the Dover Strait on the night of 20 April 1917, which
Legend holds that the sands were once the fertile low-lying island of Lomea, often equated with an island known to the Romans as Infera Insula ("Low Island"). This, it is said, was owned in the first half of the 11th century by Godwin, Earl of Wessex, after whom the sands are named. Godwin of Wessex, also known as Godwine Goodwin Godwyn or Goodwyn (c When he fell from favour, the land was given to St. Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury, whose abbot failed to maintain the sea walls, leading to the island's destruction, some say in a storm of 1099. St Augustine's Abbey was a Benedictine Abbey in Canterbury, Kent, England. The word abbot, meaning Father, is a title given to the head of a Monastery in various traditions including Christianity. A seawall is a form of hard and strong Coastal defence constructed on the inland part of a Coast to reduce the effects of strong Waves. However, the island is not mentioned in Domesday Book, suggesting that if it existed it may have been inundated before that work was compiled in 1085–86. The Domesday Book (ˈduːmzdeɪ bʊk also known as Domesday, or Book of Winchester) was the record of the great survey [1] The earliest written record of the name "Lomea" seems to be in a 1590 work De Rebus Albionicis by a John Twyne (or Twine), but no authority for the island's existence is given. [2]
Another theory is that the sands' name came from Anglo-Saxon gōd wine = "good friend", an ironic name given by sailors.
In 1974 a plan was put forward to build a third London airport on the Goodwin Sands, with a huge harbour complex, but the idea faded into obscurity.
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Shipwrecks on the Sands
17th century
- John, the son of Phineas Pett of Chatham, was involved in an ordeal in the beginning of October 1624, when occurred: "a wonderful great storm, through which many ships perished, especially in the Downs, amongst which was riding there the Antelope of his Majesty, being bound for Ireland under the command of Sir Thomas Button, my son John then being a passinger in her. Phineas Pett ( November 1, 1570 - August 1647) was a Shipwright and a member of the Pett dynasty. The Downs are a Roadstead or area of sea in the southern North Sea near the English Channel off the east Kent Coast, between the A merchant ship, being put from her anchors, came foul of her, and put her also from all her anchors, by means whereof she drove upon the brakes [the Sands], where she beat off her rudder and much of the run abaft, miraculously escaping utter loss of all, for that the merchant ship that came foul of her, called the Dolphin, hard by her utterly perished, both ship and all the company. Yet it pleased God to save her, and got off into the downs, having cut all her masts by the board, and with much labour was kept from foundering. The Downs are a Roadstead or area of sea in the southern North Sea near the English Channel off the east Kent Coast, between the This is a glossary of nautical terms; some remain current many date from the 17th-19th century " (From the Autobiography of Phineas Pett. )
Phineas received news of the shipwreck at Deal, and was dispatched by the Lord Admiral to attend to the ship and use his best means to save her. Deal is a Town in Kent, England. It lies on the English Channel eight miles north-east of Dover. He used chain pumps, replaced the rudder, and fitted jury masts, by which effort she was safely brought to Deptford Dock.
- In 1690 HMS Vanguard, a 90-gun second-rate ship of the line, struck the Sands, but was fortunate enough to be got off by the boatmen of Deal. In the British Royal Navy, a Second-rate was a Ship of the line mounting 90 to 98 guns on three gun decks A ship-of-the-line was a type of naval warship constructed from the 17th century through the mid-19th century to take part in the the naval tactic known as the Line of battle Deal is a Town in Kent, England. It lies on the English Channel eight miles north-east of Dover.
Great Storm of 1703
In the the Great Storm at least 13 men of war and 40 merchant vessels were wrecked in the Downs, with the loss of 2,168 lives and 708 guns. The Great Storm of 1703 is arguably the most severe storm or Natural disaster ever recorded in the southern part of Britain. A man-of-war (also man of war, man-o'-war or simply man) is an armed naval vessel The Downs are a Roadstead or area of sea in the southern North Sea near the English Channel off the east Kent Coast, between the Yet, to their great credit, the Deal boatmen were able to rescue 200 men from this ordeal.
Naval vessels lost to the sands included:
- HMS Northumberland Deptford built, and, from there locally manned, lost with all hands
- HMS Restoration Deptford built, and, from there locally manned, lost with all hands; also
- HMS Stirling Castle, a 70-gun third rate built at Deptford in 1679. Wreck HMS Stirling Castle was wrecked on the Goodwin Sands in the Great Storm of 1703.
- the Woolwich fourth-rate HMS Mary was totally overwhelmed with the loss of 343 men.
- the boom ship HMS Mortar was lost with all of her 65 crew.
19th-20th century
The brig Mary White was wrecked on the Sands in a storm in 1851; seven men of her crew were rescued by the lifeboat from Broadstairs. In nautical terms, a brig is a vessel with two square-rigged masts The connection of Broadstairs with the saving of life at sea goes back to at least 1851 such was the bravery displayed by the Lifeboat crew on this occasion that it excited a great deal
The Radio Caroline vessel MV Ross Revenge drifted onto the Sands in November 1991, effectively ending the era of offshore pirate radio in Britain. Radio Caroline is a European Radio station that started transmissions on Easter Sunday 1964 from a ship anchored in International waters off the coast of The MV Ross Revenge is a Radio ship, formerly the offshore home of primarily Radio Caroline, but also Radio Monique and various religious
Literary references
William Shakespeare mentions them in The Merchant of Venice, Act 3 Scene 1:
- Why, yet it lives there uncheck'd that Antonio hath
- a ship of rich lading wrecked on the narrow seas;
- the Goodwins, I think they call the place; a very
- dangerous flat and fatal, where the carcasses of many
- a tall ship lie buried, as they say, if my gossip
- Report be an honest woman of her word. William Shakespeare ( baptised The Merchant of Venice is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598 Antonio is the title character in Shakespeare ’s The Merchant of Venice.
Herman Melville mentions them in Moby-Dick, Chapter VII, The Chapel:
- In what census of living creatures, the dead of mankind are included; why it is that a universal proverb says of them, that they tell no tales, though containing more secrets than the Goodwin Sands. Herman Melville (August 1 1819 &ndash September 28 1891 was an American novelist Short story writer Essayist and poet Moby-Dick is an 1851 Novel by Herman Melville. The story tells the adventures of the wandering sailor Ishmael and his voyage on the whaleship . .
R. M. Ballantyne, the noted Scottish writer of adventure stories, published The Floating Light of the Goodwin Sands in 1870. R M Ballantyne ( April 24, 1825 &ndash February 8, 1894) was a Scottish juvenile fiction writer
W. H. Auden quotes the phrase "to set up shop on Goodwin Sands" in his poem In Sickness and in Health. Wystan Hugh Auden (21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973 ˈwɪstən ˈhjuː ˈɔːdən who signed his works W This is a proverbial expression meaning to be shipwrecked. [3]
G. K. Chesterton's poem The Rolling English Road refers to "the night we went to Glastonbury by way of Goodwin Sands. Gilbert Keith Chesterton (29 May 1874 – 14 June 1936 was an influential English writer of the early 20th century Glastonbury is a small town in Somerset, England, situated at a Dry point on the Somerset Levels, south of Bristol. "
Ian Fleming refers to the Goodwin Sands in Moonraker, one of the James Bond novels. Ian Lancaster Fleming ( May 28, 1908 – August 12, 1964) was a British author, Journalist and Second World War Moonraker is the third Novel by British author Ian Fleming, based on the fictional British Secret Service agent Commander James Bond, first published James Bond 007 is a Fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve Novels and two Short story
References
- ^ Origines Celticae (a Fragment) and Other Contributions to the History of Britain - Page 350, Edwin Guest, 1883 — snippet
- ^ The Kentish Coast, Charles G. Harper, 1914, page 231
- ^ C. Merton Babcock, The Language of Melville's "Isolatoes", Western Folklore, Vol. 10, No. 4. (Oct. , 1951), pp. 285-289 [1]; W. Carew Hazlitt, English Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases, London, 1869, p. 430.
Further reading
- Richard Larn and Bridget Larn - Shipwrecks of the Goodwin Sands (Meresborough Books, 1995) ISBN 0-948193-84-0
External links
An historical sketch, including a map of the sands and their environs, is at: http://www.whitecliffscountry.org.uk/heritage/goodwins.asp
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