Christians Fleet

On board the hundreds of ships were tens of thousands of men off to fight the French.

The fleet commanded by Admiral Hugh Christian sailed into the worst storm for a century. Most of the ships made it to safety although some were blown backwards from one end of the English Channel to the other. Some of the ships were not so lucky.

Six ships met their fate blown against the steeply banked shingle of Chesil Beach in Dorset. The transports carried hundreds of men and only a few survived to tell the tale, with the sea casting up bodies and pieces of wreckage for weeks afterwards.

Christians Fleet is the story of that fateful night of 18th/19th November 1795, of the tragedy that unfolded and its aftermath, especially around Chesil Beach and Portland. Using first hand reports from Admiral Christian, the survivor Mrs Burns, and William Shrapnell, one of the soldiers who helped rescue survivors and recover the bodies, this account of the sinking of Christian’s ships is remarkably well researched and includes appendices detailing all ships lost and the fates of their individual crewmen as well as other ships damaged and stranded. Pages of notes and references would lead interested readers to an abundance of related materials.

Edwina Boult has had an association with Chesil Beach and Portland since her childhood.

Local lore and rich legend had grown to fill the void in genuine knowledge of the tragedy until her years of research produced this definitive work. Christian’s Fleet is essential reading for anyone interested in shipping at the time of burgeoning Empire, shipwrecks, military and naval history of the era, and local Dorset history.

Christian’s Fleet
By Edwina Boult.
Published by Tempus Publishing Ltd
ISBN 0 752427 830.
Paperback, 160 pages.
Price £15.99.