The Story Of The Wrecking Of The VARVASSI

By Peter Bruce – Sailor and Author, peter-bruce.com

Pride of place for Solent notoriety, if a wreck is allowed such distinction, has to go to the 1915 UK-built 3874 ton merchant ship VARVASSI. On 5th January 1947, she became perched on a rock off the Needles when on passage from Algiers to Southampton.

A VIEW OF THE VARVASSI ON THE EVENING OF THE DAY OF THE GROUNDING, WITH THE CREW STILL ON BOARD. (Photo by Keystone). PHOTO CREDIT SuperStock / Alamy Stock Photo

How the Greek owned VARVASSI managed to go aground at 0655 on 5th January 1947 in calm conditions and good visibility was a mystery at the time. It was over an hour before sunrise and therefore still fairly dark, but the lighthouse light would have been blindingly apparent before she struck. Furthermore, the pilot boat was in attendance and was doing its best to warn Captain Coufopandelis that his ship was heading for the rocks.

High tide at Portsmouth was at 0925 on 5th January 1947, and it was not far off spring tides, therefore the tidal stream would have been going north-east and carrying the ship towards the Island at two knots. Any wind from the west would have added more to her speed. If the ship had a steering failure she could have gone astern; on the other hand, if she had a propulsion failure or a propulsion staff failure it would account for the captain being aware that he was on a dangerous course but being unable to do much about it. If there had been a mechanical malfunction, this would have most likely been admitted but, if it were caused through disagreement between captain and his crew, probably not. There are some reports of the engineering staff being seen on deck at the time of the grounding rather than their place of duty which supports the theory of personnel failure. This seems a plausible explanation, corroborated by the English-speaking captain, who after been taken ashore, admitted that the grounding had been what he called ‘a put-up job’.

THE NEEDLES LIGHTHOUSE ON THE ISLE OF WIGHT, UK PHOTO CREDIT Harry Shutler, Berthon

The Yarmouth lifeboat came out twice to rescue the crew of 35 but on neither occasion did anyone one leave the ship as a tug named CALSHOT from Southampton had been called to try to tow the VARVASSI off . When the CALSHOT arrived, she tried for three hours but had no success.

By the next morning the sea was running high, the ship had become holed and was flooding. The decision was made to abandon ship at 6am and a distress maroon was fired. The salvage officer, the entire VARVASSI ship’s company, the ship’s canary and cat were rescued with great difficulty by the lifeboat in the big sea which had developed overnight, the long-suffering lifeboat’s crew by now nearly exhausted by their constant attendance. The VARVASSI crew were all taken to the King’s Head pub at Yarmouth where the ship’s cat found a new home.

VARVASSI’s main cargo was 600 tons of iron ore but in the next weeks some of the additional cargo of 200 tons of tangerines and 438 large casks of Algerian wine, which was said to have been fortified with brandy, were recovered when the sea was calm enough to get to the ship. Sadly, the seven heifers housed on deck could not be disembarked and were slaughtered. Not many stormy days later the ship was judged a total loss.

THE VARVASSI, FOUR DAYS AFTER SHE BECAME WRECKED. BY THIS TIME THE SEA HAD GOT UP, SHE WAS BADLY HOLED AND SHE HAD BEEN ABANDONED. (AP Photo) PHOTO CREDIT Associated Press / Alamy Stock Photo

With dire post wartime food shortages, the tangerine influx was most welcome. Many crates were landed at Yarmouth and many also appeared on nearby beaches. Though some of the wine casks were unloaded and bought by Mew Langtons, numerous others floated ashore.

There were several accounts of the escaped wine being put to good use and though one customs officer claimed the wine was ʻunfit for human consumptionʼ others clearly did not agree. It is said that the Royal Lymington Yacht Club boatman used to draw off a supply from a barrel on the Lymington marshes and had a jug of it put out on the bar. The late Commodore Dick Thorn related how another barrel was set up on the beach at Keyhaven for the benefit of passers-by. He reported the wine to be sweet, strong and pleasantly warming. German prisoners of war from the Brambles Camp, still waiting repatriation, found a barrel at Colwell Bay and greatly enjoyed the contents. A barrel was also found ashore outside the Solent between Barton and Beckton Bunny by local GP, Dr Bobby Caldwell, who alerted the locals to the discovery. By the time the customs officer had arrived on the scene the contents of the barrel, said to be 200 gallons, had entirely gone.

Open to the Atlantic swell, the ship soon broke up and a year later there was only an iron girder showing above sea level, except at extreme low tide when the top of the boilers just appeared. Although today it can look from an echo sounder that there is a depth of over two and a half meters or so, when rounding the Needles Lighthouse and therefore enough for most leisure craft to pass, there are still the VARVASSI remnants, of which there is still an adequacy of unyielding metal. A number of vessels have found a watery grave as a result of a confrontation with one of the boilers, the ship’s main engine or the stern section, all of which project well above the seabed. Such vessels that have hit the wreck and have managed to stay afloat have brought useful business to local boatyards, so not everyone is unhappy with the situation. Notwithstanding the VARVASSI danger, there was a time when her cargo brought some solace to the post-war beleaguered locals.

One might wonder why the menacing remnants of VARVASSI have not been removed or marked by a post or buoy and the answer is that there is no authority directly responsible and the position is so exposed that the task would be very expensive. Trinity House, the organisation that looks after lighthouses and buoys whose income is derived from commercial vessel users, chooses only to mark hazards on main shipping routes. If explosives were to be used to try to blow up the sturdy remnants of the wreck, as has been widely suggested, there would have to be a massive charge in order to get the solidly built boilers and the other remains to disintegrate. Even then the only certainty is that the lighthouse would suffer major damage. Better might be to employ a heavy lift barge to move the fragments into deep water if the necessary money was forthcoming.

There was a time in the 70s when the marine insurance firm Archibald Reid gallantly paid for ‘Palm Buoy’, a turning mark for the Round the Island Race, positioned to clear the wreck. However other insurance companies, who would also be likely to benefit, never came forward to help out with the cost, so the buoy was discontinued. With a course change of 120° accentuated by the west going tide, having just the one buoy to turn round did cause congestion and barging that led to numerous protests. This, no doubt, caused much grief to the race organisers who are probably happier to do without the buoy.

THE RATHER DENTED EASTERNMOST VARVASSI BOILER SEEN AT EXTREME LOW TIDE. PHOTO CREDIT Nick Eales

In the 90s the Solent Cruising and Racing Association – the noble organisation looking after Solent yachtsmen’s interests – tried to raise funds to put up a post but, to stand up to storm waves, this would have had to be over a metre in diameter and would have cost over £100,000 even in 1999. One influential fisherman commented that the placement of a marker would be a waste of money as only irresponsible sailors went close to a wreck shown on the chart – which is an argument hard to refute. So, it remains a curious fact that the point where one of the biggest yacht races in the world – the Island Sailing Club’s Round the Island Race – has its major turn, is at an unmarked, submerged, dangerous wreck!

VARVASSI still is a notorious Solent Hazard and is not without slightly curious and sometimes rather happy memories.

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VARVASSI BOILERS – The two round dark objects left of centre are the two boilers which are 100m from the lighthouse, the one nearest the lighthouse, the eastern one, being higher. Then a little further to the south west very dimly appears the steam reciprocating machinery and beyond, slightly less dimly is the stern section which contains the propeller shaft and propeller. PHOTO CREDIT Peter Bruce