SB Martinet in Hollesley Bay

Bob Roberts, in Coasting Bargemaster, tells a compelling tale of how his ship, the ‘boomie’ barge¹A boomie has a boom at the base of the sail, rather than a sprit. Martinet, was wrecked in World War Two. He wrote that the ship wanted to kill its crew, and he had been in trouble before, having to take shelter in Abraham’s Bosom.

Leaky

Martinet was a leaky ship but not a priority for repair in wartime. In February 1941, she was carrying two hundred tons of cement from Kent to Yarmouth. Because of wartime sailing regulations, they had to anchor overnight in Hollesley Bay in the lee of Whiting Sand, about a mile east of the Orford Ness shingle spit.

Despite having been pumped earlier, as nighttime came, dinner was interrupted by the sound of water in the hold. The wind increased to near gale force, Roberts and his two crew took turns at the pumps but by two in the morning, the decks were awash.

Beaching the ship was not an option as the beach was mined, had anti-landing defences, and indeed, moving at all might have them shelled from shore batteries. Similarly, escape in the boat was not an option as, in addition to the mines, landing on a steep shingle beach in an onshore gale would be near suicidal.

Sinking

When the main pump failed, rockets and flares were fired. Fortunately, the signals were spotted at the Orford Lighthouse and the Aldeburgh lifeboat called out at five in the morning. With some difficulty and risk the crew were rescued to sail another day. What a night, no dinner, freezing, dark, soaked and about to drown.

The Martinet was a total loss, so on the seabed is a two hundred ton block of hardened cement. The book is well worth reading: Chaffcutter Books. ‘Coasting Bargemaster’.

Remains?

Out of curiosity, the DEFRA Surfzone data was analysed to see if the two-hundred-ton block of cement was visible. There is no sign of the wreck, only a very shallow scour about 100m wide by 300m long in the area. It looks natural and unrelated. The pixels are 2m square for bathymetry so it is unlikely anything would be seen. The depths are from OD so 1.6m needs to be subtracted (why don’t they agree with the chart?) It was worth a try to see if anything showed up and the contoured tendrils around Whiting sand are pretty.

Barge Details

Name: Martinet, Official No.: 128880, Owner: , Year built: 1912, Built at: , Built by: , GRT: , Dimensions ft: , 

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  A boomie has a boom at the base of the sail, rather than a sprit.