Halsewell Shipwreck

[bob-seadart]

The Halsewell sunk in 1786 off the Dorset coast.


Check out the story and view some of the finds.


http://www.seadart.net

cheers
Bob

[Tascio]

Hello Bob,

What's happening at the site at the moment? Are you making a lot of finds?

I was very tempted by the 1777 8 Reales you have for sale at the moment, shame I'm broke right now 

[bob-seadart]

What's happening at the site at the moment? Are you making a lot of finds?

I was very tempted by the 1777 8 Reales you have for sale at the moment, shame I'm broke right nowÃ, 

Hi
Tasico

We have been working the site for about 8 years [Seasonal and hobby]
There is no physical wreck just a site that is covered in boulders.
A lot of digging is involved to uncover the artefacts.

There was little diving in 06 as we had a lot of trouble with our boat engine.
Hopefully that has now been sorted, so hopping for a more prosperous year this year.

We run a sales side on our web site,
but we are a non-profit making organisation;
all our funds are ploughed back into our diving and metal detector repairs.

Most of those items on our web site have now been sold.
Must get the web site updated.

This was a nice find I recovered in Aug 05.


For larger pics and write up check out this address.


Cheers
Bob

[Tascio]

Wow, that's beautiful! I'd imagine anything wrecked against those rocks would be smashed to pieces in no time flat.

Hope you have a great diving season this year! Please keep us up to date!

[Tascio]

Bob,

Would you mind if I wrote up a page about the Halsewell for the main web site? I'll give your site a link from the page (I'll also be very clear about the site being off limits).

[bob-seadart]

Would you mind if I wrote up a page about the Halsewell for the main web site?
I'll give your site a link from the page (I'll also be very clear about the site being off limits).

Hi
Tascio

You're more than welcome to use any information or photos from our web site, for your own site.

The wreck site is not off limits to anyone.
Anyone wanting to locate the site only has to search through our web site and the exact location is there.
It is an open site and all we ask, that's Seadart Divers Assoc is if anyone wants to dive the site.
All they have to do is to contact us and let us know that they are interested
in diving the site and what artefacts have been removed.

Of course anything removed from the sea or up to high water mark has to be reported to the MCA.
[Maritime and coastguard agency]

We and the MCA keep a complete record of what has come off of this site.
Seadart are "salvor in possession" this sort of gives us squatters rights, no body can come along and throw us off the site,
as we have established ourselves as a regular diving team to monitor and adopt the site.

Thanks for the offer to link our site to yours I have already added your site to our links page http://www.seadart.net/swanage/links/links.html

This is an interesting site that outlines the wrecking of the Halsewell.

There may be some info in it you can use.The Halsewell story is about 3/4 of the way down the page.

Hope you have a great diving season this year! Please keep us up to date!

No problem with that I will keep the forum updated with our progress. Diving usually starts around Easter.

Cheers
Bob

[Tascio]

Ah ok, I thought that as you are salvor in posession anyone wanting to dive the site would need a license. Thank you for allowing me to use the images and stuff from your site (something I will certainly do)!

I'll put the page together tomorrow. Do you have any funny or interesting stories you'd like to share about your time working on the site? We are as interested in the salvors as we are in the wrecks and finds!

[bob-seadart]

Do you have any funny or interesting stories you'd like to share about your time working on the site? We are as interested in the salvors as we are in the wrecks and finds!

Here yer go.
Nothing to do with diving or metal detecting but worth a mention.

Meet our mascot. We have named him Percy. He lives in the cliffs above the dive site.
Long John Silver had his parrot, me! I've got Percy the shite hawk.
I'm still trying to teach him to say pieces of eight, but not getting very far.
He's more interested in his food.
He has been with us for about four years now, must be coming up for the fifth season.
We always know it's the same seagull because he has a small hole in his left webbed foot and it never seems to heal.
He's the only seagull that will come into the boat, when he has had his fill of sarnies etc he will let his misses have her share.
She's allowed onto the engine cover of the outboard and feeds off of that.
He usually has two little ones in tow and they are allowed to swim around the back of the boat, when they are being fed him and his misses will fend off any other seagulls trying to get in on the act.
Can get quite violent sometimes.
A couple of years ago on our first wreck site dive of the season, we arrived and Percy was nowhere to be found.
We thought perhaps he hadn't made it through the winter.
About half way through the dive day we saw other seagulls attacking this lonesome gull in the water,
it was making attempts to get onto the boat.

Finally it made it late in the day and it turned out to be Percy, It was only the hole in his foot that identified him.
He was dirty and all his feathers were roughed up.
He really looked as though he had been in the wars. If there is such a thing as a seagull tramp then he was one.
No wife and kids, it looked as though he was on his own.
We saw him quite a few times during the season but he would only come on the boat when all the other gulls had gone to take their afternoon nap.
"Survival of the fittest" We quite expected him not to make it through the winter.

The following year, 1st dive day on the wreck site and there he was proud as punch with his new misses and two more kids in tow.
He was back. King pin once again.

I don't know how long seagulls live but I hope he's with us for bit longer.
Regards
Bob.

[bob-seadart]

Tascio

Thanks for the mention and write up on  "Famous Treasure  Wrecks"

and also the link

Ta
Bob.

[Tascio]

That is a great story! great pictures of Percy too, I'll certainly work it into the page somewhere!

"Thanks for the mention and write up on your "Famous Treasure  Wrecks"

No problem at all, thanks for letting me use your photos! That page (obviously) isn't finished yet, but I'll put some more work into it later today and I certainly welcome your comments, criticism or corrections, I want to be as accurate as possible.