4 April 2025: I guess Spring is officially here and boats in the northern climes are slipping out of their winter covers, getting prettied up and bottoms painted for imminent launching. At the same time, boats in Florida are slowly getting put away for the summer as "snowbirds" head north for the summer. The vessels this post is about are neither getting ready for launch nor being laid up; they are done and serving a useful purpose in their "afterlife." From the UK's "supercarblondie" post.
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Notorious ship graveyard is littered with boats deliberately abandoned
- This is the largest ship graveyard in the UK
- It’s full of old and rotting ships, boats, and barges
- They were deliberately dumped there for a good reason
The UK has a ship graveyard that’s full of abandoned ships and boats that were deliberately dumped along a river bank for a pretty unusual reason.
The Purton Hulks – also known as the Purton Ships’ Graveyard – is situated near River Severn near Purton in Gloucestershire, England. in 1909, a call was put out to beach old vessels and now there are numerous decaying and deteriorating boats lined up.
Over the years, numerous investigations have been carried out to try and find out more about the origins of the boats.
One of the barges at the site had been scheduled as an ancient monument and is now included in the National Register of Historic Vessels.
Some of the ships and boats date back to the second half of the 19th century.
The ship graveyard is lined with boats for a very good reason
When old ships and boats are no longer fit for purpose, they often end up rotting away in a boat graveyard, like this one in Toronto, Canada, or this packed-out site in Georgia in the US.
However, in the UK, the Purton Hulks exists for a slightly different reason, while it is home to a bunch of old vessels there’s actually an interesting reason why.
In 1909, a riverbank collapsed in the area leading to concerns that the barrier between the river and the nearby Gloucester and Sharpness Canal could be breached.
In response to the concerns, the canal company’s chief engineer A. J. Cullis called on ship and boat owners to dump their old vessels along the bank of the Severn, near Purton, to create a makeshift tidal erosion barrier and reinforce that stretch of land between the river and canal.
The boats would be towed out to the dock and then released allowing the tide to carry them along the bank.
Before the boats and ships went out, holes were drilled into their hulls so that they would fill with water and silt.
Pretty smart, right?
While the old ship graveyard served a practical purpose, it’s also an interesting bit of maritime history.
The boats along the riverbank came from across the UK and were built in the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th.
In 1999, a local historian privately funded a project to record and document each of the 86 vessels, which led to Purton Hulk being recognized as the largest ship graveyard in mainland Britain.
Over the years, numerous investigations have been carried out to try and find out more about the origins of the boats.
One of the barges at the site had been scheduled as an ancient monument and is now included in the National Register of Historic Vessels.
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We have a similar site in the United States (probably more than one) located on the Kill van Kull between New Jersey and New York where derelict vessels have basically been dumped, but not to save a riverbank; just dumped as trash. My recollection is we did a piece on that some years ago. Looks like England got it right!
Until next time.Fair Winds,
Old Salt