We first heard of the wreck from the Dorset bible Dive Dorset by John and Vicky Hinchcliffe, and it sounded interesting. It’ s about four miles from Durdle Door within the army firing range at Lulworth, located in a tidal area with a diving window less than 75 minutes on neaps, and offering no shelter from the weather.

Back in 2002, an interest in researching shipwrecks was awakening and we created a personal database of Dorset shipwrecks. Sheilah spent time in archives sourcing original documentation to verify published information. Part of our diving fun was confirming and then double-checking the information available about shipwrecks. It was known as the Pin Wreck, but no-one had any idea what it was, when it sailed and when it sank. However, that dive launched a 24-year quest to find out what she really is. Sheilah is a tutor for the NAS, hosting courses on how to use the National Archives and online research; she is also a fellow of the NAS. We were well suited to carry out the research.

In the last few years Bournemouth University became interested in the wreck because they had acquired some of the items which had been removed from it. As it happened, the pulleys they had acquired

One of the bolts that gave the wreck its informal‘ Pin Wreck’ name

had actually been declared to the Receiver of Wreck. The university had dived it and recognised that it was unique, so it needed a degree of protection. We collaborated on a report to Historic England and she was scheduled in March 2025 under the Schedule of Ancient Monuments Act.

Less than a month before the report was sent to Historic England, Sheilah was in the National Archives and had her eureka moment when she found the only reference to the vessel’ s sinking in an Admiralty Digest. Suddenly elated, she let out a cry of triumph. Six fellow researchers all looked up with big smiles on their faces, making the thumbs-up signs in recognition of a fellow sleuth making a breakthrough.

Why was making the identification important? Well, this vessel is an important part of our naval and industrial heritage. Although lacking the glamour and fame of a named warship, she belonged to The

Forgotten Fleet of lighters, barges and cutters which supported the Royal Navy and kept it operational. Mooring Lighter No. 8 was instrumental in the raising of HMS Eurydice in 1878 and consequently we have a sketch and an oil painting where she can be seen.

Mooring lighters placed anchors on the seabed to secure the chains and buoys used by ships when mooring. Their powerful lifting equipment could also be used for salvage work, and part of her function was as a diving platform to facilitate this. Mooring Lighter no. 8 was cutting edge Victorian technology, one of the first steam capstans in the navy. Siebe Gorman’ s diving helmets were only designed 30 years previously.

On 11 September 1903 she was being towed to Portland from Portsmouth by HM Tug, Enterprise [ MO1 ] to move some mooring buoys associated with the building

MARTIN OPENSHAW

The vessel’ s main anchor

SHEILAH OPENSHAW

A roller, part of the lifting gear

MARTIN OPENSHAW

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