Lights Against the Sea: North Sea Shipwrecks and Lighthouses (1593–2026)

Timeline

Layers

Land · Sea within range of a lighthouse or lightship · Wreck lists incomplete (1891–1913) · Wrecks: 1+ per 100 km² in ten years · Wrecks: 3.5+ per 100 km² in ten years · Wrecks: 10+ per 100 km² in ten years

Events

• 24 Dec 1593, Christmas Eve storm, Texel Roads · 24 Dec 1593: On Christmas Eve 1593 a gale hit the Texel roadstead, where laden merchantmen lay at anchor; about 44 fully laden ships were lost and wreckage and bodies littered Texel's east coast. The death toll is not known. The merchant-poet Roemer Visscher named his third daughter Maria Tesselschade ('Texel da…
• 26 Nov 1703, Great Storm, Goodwin Sands · 26 Nov 1703: The Great Storm of 1703 (26 November Old Style) wrecked Royal Navy ships on the Goodwin Sands, among them Restoration, Northumberland, Stirling Castle and Mary. Over a thousand seamen drowned there alone, about 1,500 Royal Navy seamen in all, and at least 8,000 people died across the country.
• 1731, First lightship: Nore · 1731: Robert Hamblin and David Avery moored the first lightship at the Nore in the Thames estuary, a private venture. Accounts date it between 1731 and 1734; 1732 is the year most often given.
• 1786, Northern Lighthouse Board founded · 1786: An Act of Parliament creates the Commissioners of Northern Lighthouses; Kinnaird Head is first lit in 1787.
• 9 Oct 1799, HMS Lutine · 9 Oct 1799: Carrying gold and silver to Hamburg, the frigate Lutine sank in a storm off Vlieland with about 240 aboard; one man survived. Her bell, recovered in 1858, hangs at Lloyd's of London, where it was rung once for a lost ship and twice for an overdue ship's return. Today it is rung only on ceremonial oc…
• 24 Dec 1811, HMS St George and HMS Defence · 24 Dec 1811: Returning from the Baltic, the 98-gun St George and the 74-gun Defence were driven onto the Jutland bars in a storm on Christmas Eve. Almost 1,400 men drowned; many were buried in the dunes at Thorsminde.
• 4 Mar 1824, RNLI founded · 4 Mar 1824: On 4 March 1824 a meeting at the London Tavern chaired by the Archbishop of Canterbury founded the National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck; William Hillary, George Hibbert and Thomas Wilson led it. 'Royal' was added on 20 March 1824.
• 14 Oct 1824, De Vrede at Huisduinen (Den Helder) · 14 Oct 1824: In the storm of 14 October 1824 the frigate De Vrede stranded at Huisduinen near Den Helder. Six rescuers and three shipwrecked sailors died. The disaster led directly to organised sea rescue in the Netherlands: the Noord-Hollandsche society was founded on 11 November and the Zuid-Hollandsche on 20…
• 7 Sep 1838, SS Forfarshire and Grace Darling · 7 Sep 1838: The paddle steamer Forfarshire broke up on Big Harcar rock in a gale. Grace Darling and her father William rowed a coble out from the Longstone lighthouse and took nine survivors off the rock; nine more had got away in the ship's boat. 43 of the 61 aboard died. Grace Darling became a national heroin…
• 11 Sep 1842, Russian ship of the line Ingermanland, Kristiansand · 11 Sep 1842: The Russian ship of the line Ingermanland was hit by a severe storm off Lindesnes and grounded on the islet Grønningen off Kristiansand on the evening of 11 September 1842. The crew had mistaken the Oksøy light for another ship's lantern and believed they were far from shore. Refloated by the waves,…
• 1 Dec 1858, First electric lighthouse · Dec 1858: The Upper South Foreland lighthouse (built 1843) became the first lighthouse to use electric light, after a trial that began in December 1858.
• 1 Feb 1861, FitzRoy's storm warnings · Feb 1861: FitzRoy's Meteorological Office issues the first telegraphed storm warnings in early February 1861, after the Royal Charter storm of 1859. Storm cones hoisted at the ports pass the warning on to ships.
• 29 May 1865, German sea rescue society · 29 May 1865: The Deutsche Gesellschaft zur Rettung Schiffbrüchiger (DGzRS) is founded in Kiel and builds stations along the North Sea coast.
• 6 Dec 1875, SS Deutschland, Kentish Knock · 6 Dec 1875: The German emigrant steamer Deutschland ran onto the Kentish Knock in a snowstorm and lay stuck for about 30 hours before a tug arrived and took off 173 survivors. 157 died, among them five nuns, whose deaths inspired Gerard Manley Hopkins' poem The Wreck of the Deutschland.
• 1 Aug 1876, Plimsoll line law · Aug 1876: The Merchant Shipping Act 1876 makes load lines mandatory on British ships; overloaded 'coffin ships' lose ground.
• 14 Oct 1881, Eyemouth disaster · 14 Oct 1881: A violent storm struck the Berwickshire fishing fleet on 'Black Friday' after a calm morning. 189 fishermen drowned, 129 of them from Eyemouth. Many boats were caught near the rocks in poor visibility, and badly stowed ballast played a part. A relief fund raised over £50,000 for the widows and child…
• 5 Mar 1883, Moddergat fishing disaster · 5 Mar 1883: On the night of 5-6 March 1883 a spring gale caught the fishing fleet of Moddergat north of the Wadden Islands. Almost the entire village fleet was lost and 83 fishermen drowned, out of 121 Dutch fishermen killed in the storm.
• 1 Sep 1890, First RNLI steam lifeboat · Sep 1890: The Duke of Northumberland (ON 231), built 1889 by R & H Green and the RNLI's first steam lifeboat and first with water-jets, entered service at Harwich in September 1890; she moved to New Brighton in 1892.
• 9 Jul 1891, Norwegian rescue society · 9 Jul 1891: Norsk Selskab til Skibbrudnes Redning (NSSR, now Redningsselskapet) is founded; the Colin Archer rescue cutters follow from 1893.
• 21 Nov 1893, Harboøre fishing disaster · 21 Nov 1893: On the night of 20-21 November 1893 a storm caught the open fishing boats from the beach at Harboøre; 26 local men drowned, leaving 19 widows and 70 fatherless children.
• 30 Jan 1895, SS Elbe · 30 Jan 1895: In a gale before dawn the small steamer Crathie (about 475 grt) rammed the Norddeutscher Lloyd liner Elbe and sailed on without stopping. 334 of 354 aboard died. The 20 survivors (15 crew, 4 male passengers, 1 maid) spent about five hours in a lifeboat before the Lowestoft smack Wildflower picked th…
• 25 Jan 1897, Harboøre lifeboat disaster · 25 Jan 1897: On 25 January 1897 the Harboøre lifeboat was lost during a rescue attempt; 12 rescuers drowned. It was the second blow to the village in four years.
• 28 Apr 1899, East Goodwin lightship: first wireless distress calls · 28 Apr 1899: On Christmas Eve 1898 Marconi linked the East Goodwin lightship to the South Foreland lighthouse by wireless, the first such link for a lightship. On 17 March 1899 she sent what is credited as the first radio distress call, when the steamer Elbe grounded on the Goodwin Sands. On 28 April 1899 the st…
• 13 Nov 1901, Caister lifeboat disaster · 13 Nov 1901: On the night of 13–14 November 1901 the Caister beach lifeboat Beauchamp launched in a whole gale to flares seen on the Barber Sands and capsized; nine of her twelve crew died. At the inquest the veteran lifeboatman James Haylett said the men would 'never give up the ship'; journalists rendered it a…
• 3 Nov 1906, SOS adopted · 3 Nov 1906: Berlin radiotelegraph convention sets SOS as the distress signal (in force 1908), replacing CQD.
• 21 Feb 1907, SS Berlin at the Hook of Holland · 21 Feb 1907: The Harwich ferry Berlin hit the pier at the entrance to the New Waterway in a gale and broke in two about 06:00. 128 of 144 aboard died. Lifeboat captain Martijn Sperling reached the north pier, threw ropes to the wreck and rescued 11, then three women more from a yawl. The inquiry became the model…
• 1 Jun 1907, Swedish Sea Rescue Society · 1 Jun 1907: Sjöräddningssällskapet is founded in Stockholm; volunteers crew rescue boats on the west coast.
• 20 Jan 1914, First SOLAS convention · 20 Jan 1914: After the Titanic, the first SOLAS convention is signed in London: lifeboats, radio watch, ice patrol. War stops it entering force.
• 5 Sep 1914, HMS Pathfinder · 5 Sep 1914: On 5 September 1914 U-21 torpedoed the scout cruiser Pathfinder off St Abbs Head; she sank quickly and about 259 died. She is often called the first ship sunk by a self-propelled torpedo fired from a submarine.
• 22 Sep 1914, HMS Aboukir, Hogue and Cressy · 22 Sep 1914: U-9 sank three old British cruisers within an hour. Hogue and Cressy stopped to pick up survivors and were torpedoed too. 1,459 men died, many of them reservists and cadets. The Admiralty withdrew the other old cruisers from patrol duties and took the U-boat threat more seriously.
• 30 Oct 1914, HMHS Rohilla at Whitby · 30 Oct 1914: The hospital ship Rohilla, bound for Dunkirk, struck Saltwick Nab at Whitby in a gale on 30 October 1914 and broke up close to shore. Lifeboats from Whitby, Upgang, Scarborough, Teesmouth and Tynemouth (the motor lifeboat Henry Vernon) took off 146 people over about three days; 83 of the 229 aboard…
• 24 Jan 1915, Battle of the Dogger Bank · 24 Jan 1915: British battlecruisers, warned by decoded German signals, caught the German raiding squadron on the Dogger Bank. The armoured cruiser Blücher was sunk; 792 of her 1,026 crew died.
• 31 May 1916, Battle of Jutland · 31 May 1916: The largest naval battle of the First World War: the British Grand Fleet and the German High Seas Fleet fought off Jutland, and 25 ships (14 British, 11 German) and about 8,650 men (6,094 British and 2,551 German) were lost.
• 5 Jun 1916, HMS Hampshire · 5 Jun 1916: Carrying Lord Kitchener to Russia, the cruiser Hampshire struck a mine off Marwick Head in a gale and sank within 15 minutes. Kitchener died with 736 others; only 12 of the 749 aboard reached the shore alive.
• 21 Jun 1919, Scuttling of the German fleet, Scapa Flow · 21 Jun 1919: The German High Seas Fleet had been interned at Scapa Flow since the armistice. On 21 June 1919 Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter ordered his crews to scuttle it: 52 of the 74 ships sank. Nine German sailors were shot dead in the confusion. Most of the wrecks were raised for scrap between the wars; sev…
• 23 Oct 1921, Terschelling lifeboat Brandaris lost · 23 Oct 1921: On 23 October 1921 the motor lifeboat Brandaris from Terschelling went to help the German schooner Liesbeth off Texel in a heavy storm. On the way back round Vlieland she vanished in the waves and was never seen again; four rescuers died. A new Brandaris served from 1923 to 1960 and saved about 525…
• 14 Oct 1939, HMS Royal Oak at Scapa Flow · 14 Oct 1939: U-47 slipped through Kirk Sound and sank the battleship Royal Oak at anchor; 835 of the 1,234 aboard died. The Churchill Barriers were then built to close the eastern channels into Scapa Flow. Today they carry a road across the islands.
• 18 Nov 1939, SS Simon Bolivar · 18 Nov 1939: On 18 November 1939 the Dutch liner Simon Bolivar hit two German magnetic mines about 13 nautical miles off Frinton, near the Sunk lightship, and sank within 15 minutes. About 84 of the 400 aboard died.
• 9 Apr 1940, Blücher in the Oslofjord · 9 Apr 1940: Norwegian shore guns and torpedoes sank the German cruiser Blücher in the narrows at Drøbak. Estimates of the dead range from about 320 to 1,000. The delay let the Norwegian royal family and government leave Oslo.
• 26 May 1940, Operation Dynamo, Dunkirk · 26 May 1940: Between 26 May and 4 June 1940 Operation Dynamo took 338,226 Allied troops off Dunkirk, planned for 45,000 over two days. About 1,000 vessels took part, some 700 of them civilian craft; around 240 were lost.
• 15 Apr 1943, HSwMS Ulven submarine, off Marstrand · 15 Apr 1943: The Swedish submarine Ulven disappeared on a training mission in April 1943 after hitting a mine (probably German) in the Kattegat/Gothenburg approaches. All 33 died, Sweden's worst submarine disaster. She was found on 5 May at 52 m depth and raised.
• 1946, Decca Navigator · 1946: The English Decca chain (5B) was inaugurated in 1946; Decca signals were used from 1944 around D-Day. The UK system ran until 2000.
• 31 Jan 1953, North Sea flood of 1953 · 31 Jan 1953: A spring tide and a northerly storm surge broke the dikes on the night of 31 January to 1 February 1953. About 1,836 people died in the Netherlands, mostly in Zeeland, 307 in England, 28 in Belgium and 19 in Scotland, and more than 230 at sea, among them those lost on the car ferry Princess Victoria…
• 27 Nov 1954, South Goodwin lightship lost · 27 Nov 1954: In a hurricane-force storm the cables of both anchors of the South Goodwin lightship (LV90) parted and she was driven onto the Goodwin Sands, the bank she was there to mark. All seven of her crew died; the only survivor was a visiting scientist from the Ministry of Agriculture, aboard to record bird…
• 16 Feb 1962, Hamburg flood · 16 Feb 1962: A storm surge in the Elbe broke dikes on the night of 16-17 February 1962. 315 died in Hamburg, most in the Wilhelmsburg district. Police senator Helmut Schmidt coordinated rescue, obtained NATO helicopters and called in Bundeswehr engineers beyond his legal authority. Dike heights and surge warning…
• 27 Dec 1965, Sea Gem rig collapse · 27 Dec 1965: The jack-up rig Sea Gem, which had made the first British natural gas discovery in September 1965, collapsed on 27 December 1965, about 36 nautical miles off Lincolnshire, when two legs crumpled while the hull was being lowered. 13 died; 19 of 32 crew were rescued. The inquiry blamed brittle fractur…
• 1967, Dover Strait routes (voluntary) · 1967: Voluntary traffic separation scheme starts in the Dover Strait, the world's first, to stop head-on collisions in the busiest lane.
• 15 Jul 1977, Dover TSS mandatory · 15 Jul 1977: The 1972 COLREG entered into force on 15 July 1977; its Rule 10 gave IMO-adopted schemes such as the Dover Strait legal force. An IMO resolution of 1971 had already urged mandatory observance.
• 27 Mar 1980, Alexander L. Kielland platform · 27 Mar 1980: A fatigue crack, which had started at a 6 mm fillet weld on a bracing, tore a leg from the accommodation rig in a storm. With no structural redundancy, the rig capsized in 20 minutes and 123 of the 212 aboard died, Norway's worst disaster since 1945.
• 6 Mar 1987, MS Herald of Free Enterprise · 6 Mar 1987: The Dover ferry left Zeebrugge with her bow door open and capsized within minutes in shallow water; 193 passengers and crew died. Afterwards bow-door indicators on the bridge and stricter stability rules for ro-ro ferries were introduced (SOLAS 1990).
• 6 Jul 1988, Piper Alpha · 6 Jul 1988: Gas condensate leaked and exploded on the Piper Alpha platform. The fire spread through linked pipelines; 167 men died, 61 survived. The Cullen report (November 1990, 106 recommendations) led to the Offshore Safety Act 1992 and the Safety Case Regulations; enforcement moved to the HSE.
• 7 Apr 1990, MS Scandinavian Star · 7 Apr 1990: On 7 April 1990 fire broke out at about 02:00 on the ferry Scandinavian Star en route Oslo-Frederikshavn. A new crew had been trained for only ten days; flammable melamine cabin laminate, open fire doors and ventilation fans spread the fire. 159 died (158 aboard, one two weeks later). The cause was…
• 5 Jan 1993, MT Braer oil spill · 5 Jan 1993: The tanker Braer lost engine power on 3 January 1993 after seawater contaminated her fuel, and grounded at Garths Ness on 5 January, spilling about 84,800 tonnes of crude. Wind dispersed most of it; at least 1,500 birds died; all crew were saved. She broke up on 11 January. In the years after, emerg…
• 31 Mar 1998, Last Scottish keepers leave · 31 Mar 1998: Fair Isle South, the last manned Scottish lighthouse, is automated.
• 26 Nov 1998, Last English keepers leave · 26 Nov 1998: North Foreland, the last manned lighthouse in England, is automated. Nash Point in Wales was automated the same year.
• 31 Mar 2000, Decca switched off · 31 Mar 2000: The UK general lighthouse authorities close the Decca Navigator chains at midnight, replaced by GPS.
• 27 Jun 2002, EU vessel traffic monitoring · 27 Jun 2002: Directive 2002/59/EC sets up EU-wide ship reporting and vessel traffic monitoring, one of the measures taken after the Erika oil spill of 1999.
• 14 Dec 2002, MV Tricolor · 14 Dec 2002: The car carrier Tricolor, carrying nearly 3,000 cars from Zeebrugge to Southampton, sank on 14 December 2002 after colliding with the container ship Kariba about 17 nautical miles north of the French coast, where two traffic lanes merge. Two more ships hit the wreck in the following days. No one die…
• 19 Jan 2004, MV Rocknes · 19 Jan 2004: The bulk carrier Rocknes, loaded with rock for Emden, grounded on a shoal in Vatlestraumen south of Bergen on 19 January 2004 and capsized within minutes. 18 of about 30 aboard died. She was righted in March 2004.
• 5 Dec 2012, Baltic Ace · 5 Dec 2012: The car carrier Baltic Ace collided with the container ship Corvus J in the shipping lanes some 40–50 km off the Dutch coast and sank within about fifteen minutes. Eleven of her 24 crew died; thirteen were picked up from liferafts by helicopters and nearby ships.
• 2019, MSC Zoe · 1 Jan 2019: In a storm, MSC Zoe lost 342 containers north of Ameland and Borkum. Plastic and toys washed up on the Wadden Islands. Rules for very large container ships were reviewed.
• 25 Jul 2023, Fremantle Highway · 25 Jul 2023: On the night of 25 July 2023 fire broke out aboard the car carrier Fremantle Highway off Ameland; one of her 23 Indian crew died. K Line later put the cargo at 3,783 vehicles, including 498 electric cars. She was towed clear of the Wadden Sea.
• 24 Oct 2023, Verity and Polesie · 24 Oct 2023: Before dawn the small British cargo ship Verity collided with the much larger bulk carrier Polesie about 12 nautical miles south-west of Helgoland and sank. Two of her seven crew were rescued; one body was recovered and four men were never found.
• 10 Mar 2025, Solong and Stena Immaculate · 10 Mar 2025: In daylight the container ship Solong ran into the anchored tanker Stena Immaculate, loaded with jet fuel for the US Air Force, about 14 nautical miles north-east of Spurn Head. Both ships burned; 36 people were rescued and one of Solong's crew was lost. Her captain was convicted of gross negligence…

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