A vessel is shown either grounded or beached south of Lydd Ranges west of Dungeness on aerial photography dated 10th September 1946. She appears broadside on to the sea, with evidence of damage on the seaward, or port, side of the hull, which has been breached. As the vessel has not been identified, the cause of the damage is unknown, but may have been due to a collision or to a sea mine during the war or shortly afterwards; even during the post-war period mines were regularly washed up on the English Channel coasts and continued to cause shipping losses. These possible causes of the damage have been indexed as conjectural evidence. The vessel was not shown in aerial photographs taken in 1940-1941 nor in 1958, suggesting that when photographed in 1946 she was temporarily beached or stranded, and was therefore possibly either recovered or broken up in situ. The vessel was 58m long with a 12m beam, and can be seen from the photograph to be a steamer, built of steel, consistent with most ships of the period. There are no apparent matches for this vessel in Lloyd's War Losses for the Second World War, Vol. 2, for vessels lost or damaged by mines in the post-war period; without a specific date for the incident it is difficult to identify the vessel from other sources. Date of Loss Qualifier: Reporting date of incident (date of photography) The vessel, as already described, is visible on a vertical aerial photograph of 1946. It was mapped from this photograph as part of the South East RCZAS NMP project. (1)

<1> RAF, 1946, NMR RAF/106G/UK/1725 3098-9 10-SEPT-1946 (Photograph). SWX23822.