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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Dafydd, post: 26662507, member: 86815&quot;]It never ceases to amaze me how many things are out there and how many wrecks there are with recovered coins and artefacts. </p><p>Following on from your post on the Chinese Pot you gifted your sister, I wanted to post this pair of egg cups. How they survived is incredible and a poignant pair of artefacts that represent the more aspects of everyday mundane life on board a passenger ship.</p><p>These egg cups were recovered from the Cutter Avalanche which sank in 1877.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1701172[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]1701173[/ATTACH] </p><p>For some reason the second image looks red but they are both blue.</p><p><br /></p><p>Here are some details of the shipwreck which was a great tragedy.</p><p>The Avalanche left London in September 1877 bound for Wellington, New Zealand carrying 63 emigrants. Built of iron and weighing 1,210 tonnes, the Avalanche had a crew of 43 under the command of Captain E. Williams.</p><p><br /></p><p>As the ship neared Portland Bill, a force eight gale was blowing. The driving rain was whipping up some huge seas. Another ship was sailing nearby. This was the Forest, a wooden ship, bound for New York with a crew of 21 men commanded by Captain Lockhart. By the 11th of September 1877 both ships were twelve miles off Portland Bill. In spite of the awful conditions they managed to see each other but, tragically, it was too late to avoid a collision.</p><p><br /></p><p>The Forest hit the Avalanche amidships, rebounded and struck again almost cutting her in two. The Avalanche sank straight away with the loss of 103 lives. Only the three who managed to scramble on board the Forest were saved. Very soon thereafter, the Forest’s captain gave orders to abandon ship. They launched three small boats but two sank immediately with the loss of twelve men. The third boat made it to safety carrying twelve survivors.</p><p><br /></p><p>The Forest stayed afloat and became a hazard to shipping. Eleven days after the tragedy the navy towed it out to sea and blew it up. Many bodies were washed ashore along Chesil Beach. The responsibility for burying the dead lay with the parish councils along the coast. The news of the build-up of bodies waiting to be buried came to the attention of the national press.</p><p><br /></p><p>An appeal fund was launched by the friends and relations of those who lost their lives in the tragedy. Money poured in from all over England as well as Australia and New Zealand. Sufficient funds were raised to purchase a site on Portland Bill at Southwell to erect a memorial chapel overlooking the scene of the disaster. A huge anchor from the Avalanche lies in the churchyard of what is now known as the Avalanche church.</p><p>I did some research and found this image, which I acknowledge on the Deeperdorset.co.uk&nbsp; website, which I would really recommend. It is an excellent resource.</p><p>There is a goodly amount of information available on this site regarding &quot;my&quot; particular shipwreck where my egg cups originated.</p><p><img src="https://deeperdorset.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/AVALANCHE-SPIDGE.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p>An image of an egg cup can be seen in the middle of the image which looks identical to mine.</p><p>One interesting thing I learnt from the website was that the vessel that collided with the Avalanche, the Forest, was towed further out to sea and sunk with gunpowder. I did a bit of diving of my own and found out elsewhere that torpedoes were fired at it and I had no idea that they were so sophisticated at this time. In fact the British Navy had dedicated torpedo boats in 1877.</p><p>If you check out this website there is a list of shipwrecks numbering a couple of hundred! Many of them are thoroughly researched and it is a great resource.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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