News
49 more ships that were either wrecked or sank in and around the Falkland Islands have been put into the FMHT Maritime Archive, bringing the total number of historic or classic lost ships and their stories on the database to 201 – with more to come.
The new archive entries include previously untold stories of how vessels that either worked the Falklands or sought shelter there met their end and what happened to their captains and crews.
Such as the HELEN A MILLER, which was deliberately beached and then burned in Wreck Bay by her captain, so she could “Tell No Tales”, in 1859. Or the G. F. HAENDAL, named after the German-British composer George Frideric Handel, which caught fire when she arrived in the Falklands in 1880 and burned “to her water line”. One of the few items of cargo to survive was a bronze statue of King Kamehameha I, the conqueror and first King of Hawaii. A third new story involves the MARY DAVIDSON, which was “totally wrecked” after ‘striking rocks’ in the Falklands in 1871. Seven of her crew died, whilst three spent 27 days on the rocks, “suffering great privations”.
It is estimated that there are far more than 200 wrecks in and around the islands. Although there have been millions of words written about these ships and what really happened to them, there isn’t a single combined database that students, historians and scholars can access to check facts and accurately locate last resting places.
The archive is inspired and curated by Peter Beardmore.