'PREUSSEN SALVAGERS WRECKED.

'DOVER MEN'S EXCITING EXPERIENCES.

'Two men who were at work on Saturday at the salvage of the cargo of the PREUSSEN had a very narrow escape from being drowned, being wrecked near the South Foreland in trying to return to Dover Harbour with their cargo. It appears that on Saturday, Mr James, of Bulwark Hill, lost his boat, the IDA, to the men in question, one being named Pocock, living at Blucher Row, and the other a stranger known to him only as "Irish Mike". They rowed the boat round all right tot he PREUSSEN, James following later with another boat, which he loaded and left the wreck with at 5.46pm. He states that he advised the others to come too, as he could see that a thick fog was coming on, but they delayed in order to finish putting a table on board. The fog came on so rapidly that James's boat ran a good bit of risk before getting safely home. Early on Sunday morning, Mr James, finding that his boat the IDA had not come in, reported it to the Coastguard, and went to the Eastern Arm. From there with a telescope he saw the remains of his boat wrecked. Fears of a fatal accident having happned were relieved shortly afterwards by the men being found wet through and half dead with cold. It appears that they stayed on the wreck till 2am, and then put off on the flood tide, which took them in the wrong direction. Pocock, describing his experience, says: "When we started to row back it had become very foggy. My companion could not use an oar, in fact, he said he had never been afloat before, and he became faint. I adivsed him to bathe his head to overcome the faintness, and he did so. There was more trouble ahead, for I soon found our boat was filling. The water came in rapidly, and we had to throw over our salved goods. As the boat sank under us, we had to swim for it, but succeeded in getting to shore under the cliffs. The sculls of the boat and some sail from teh PREUSSEN was washed ashore, and with these we managed to rig up a shelter as close to the cliffs as we could get, but we passed a very uncomfortable night, as we were wet through, and the sail was dripping wet. We stopped there until about 9 in the morning, when we managed to make our way along the foreshore to Dover. We saw our boat, which had been smashed against the rocks. Later we met a couple of coastguards, from whom we learnt that our disappearance had been reported, and search parties had been out."

'The boat was smahsed to pieces.

'Although they had a narrow escape, a good deal of amusement has been caused amonst those who know the participants by the daily papers describing them as "boys". One in fact, is a married man, but one well-known daily came out with a special contents bill about the "Dover boys' adventurs on the PREUSSEN wreck." The story first appeared on Tuesday, when it was stated that a number of boys hearing stories of fortunes to be made by salvaging the PREUSSEN, took a boat and went to sea on their own, getting lost in the fog and coming ashore under the cliffs, where they had to spend the night.' (1)

Crew: 2 (1)
Owner: James, Bulwark Hill, Dover (1)

Date of Loss Qualifier: Actual date of loss

<1> 1911, The Dover Express (Newspaper). SKE55734.