Jim Blazeby

"So Compton Castle wasn't a great problem, until--, and I'm not sure of this date.

It was during a particularly bad bit of weather when probably there was a South westerly gale. Now this forces water up the English Channel and increases the level of water in a tidal estuary, the level would be pushed up by a foot or two and if you get a low pressure at the same time this adds another foot on the tide. During such an event the Compton Castle sank. She filled up with water and at high water her decks were covered. There she was stuck in the mud full of water and mud. She had always been floating until she sank for the first time.

Two reasons caused her to to sink. One, the bad weather caused the conditions. But the main reason was she got caught against the quay. I think she was head northwards, so she was bow up into the estuary, and either the paddles or a projection, when she was bouncing around and swirling about, caught under that very old wall. As the tide and sea came up, one side caught under there, she listed. The rising swelling tide and all the rest of it, came in. She rapidly filled and down she went. She then had to be pumped out to float again, which the owners did. I'm not sure who owned it then.

When it was pumped out I then inspected the thing officially. I banged the plates looked under the floorboards and said to myself this is a floating wreck. What might happen one of these days? I think the plates were cast iron and I remember banging the hull while crawling around her in my boiler suit and looking at the shape of the plates and how she'd withstood normal corrosion all these years. It made me think they were iron plates not steel, but I may be wrong.