3-034-686 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Wreck of the Underley at the back of the Isle of Wight, 1871. Engraving of a sketch by Mr. J. Wemyss Anderson. '...a violent southeast gale swept the English Channel in the neighbourhood of Ventnor...a large full-rigged ship was observed to drive headforemost on the rocks in the neighbourhood of Dunnose Head...she sheered round broadside on, with her keel wedged between two rocks. This vessel was the Underley, a fine iron ship of 900 tons,...and chartered for the London and Australia Black Ball line. She had left the Thames..., with thirty emigrant passengers for Melbourne and a general cargo valued at £30,000, consisting chiefly of Manchester goods, machinery, and several tons of gunpowder for blasting... Notice was given to the coastguard stations at Ventnor and Shanklin; and as soon as it was light the men at those stations lost no time in repairing to the scene of the disaster...the tide began to ebb, and the vessel settled down among the rocks within a few yards of the shore...When the tide was up again, late in the evening, an effort was made by the two tugs to haul the ship off the rocks, having first removed a portion of her cargo. This effort, however, did not prove successful...The vessel afterwards went to pieces'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.