Low Tides Reveal Guernsey's Wrecks

The lowest spring tides of the year have uncovered twisted iron and more substantial remains of vessels that have come to grief off Guernsey's coast.

The past few days, 12 and 13 March, have seen exceptionally low spring tides.

It's meant that the remains of a number of shipwrecks have been accessible to those willing to scramble to reach them.

Scattered among the rocks east of Fort Le Marchant on the north coast are the remains of the Iris, its sheets of iron cladding caught under rocks.

What looks like the remains of her keel is wedged between a substantial rock far down the rocky beach.

A search online shows she was carrying China Clay from Fowey in Cornwall to what's thought to be St Malo, when she foundered on 19 December 1918.

The steel ketch was ripped apart on the reef and wasn't salvageable. She had five crew and four died when she grounded.

One though had a particularly tragic end. He was swept by the tides east to one of the islets known as The Humps, north of Herm, where he scrambled ashore and managed to survive for some weeks before dying of starvation and cold. Passing boats never saw his signals for help.