La Garde Ecossaise Historical Fiction and Early Modern Studies Newsletter

No. 7 Early Modern Shipwrecks in the English Channel and Goodwin Sands.

Author

Dr Kirsteen M MacKenzie
April 11, 2025

Welcome

A warm welcome to the La Garde Ecossaise Historical Fiction newsletter – this is your fortnightly update on the novel series and early modern studies.

New Releases from La Garde Ecossaise

Audio Guide Chapter 11 London, Leith and St Malo.

Audio Guide Chapter 12 Auberge at Marly.

The audio guide is available on YouTube, Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Quote

‘Hamilton kept a diary and logbook of all missions the Garde was involved in. It was written in cypher so that the Garde could learn from its successes and failures in the field. Indeed, as I found out by reading this logbook many years later, my first experience of a mission was a success and one I knew little about, not anything of, until I was given the logbook for safekeeping’. (La Garde Ecossaise Book 1 p.41).

Log Book of a Voyage around South Africa 17th century Peniarth Manuscripts, National Library of Wales, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Early Modern Digest

Do You Know?

Early modern scientists and physicists knew about the existence of electricity but did not know how to harness it to produce power. See J.L. Helibron, Electricity in the 17th and 18th centuries: A Study of Early Modern Physics (Sacramento, 2023).

Simon de Vlieger, Thunderstorm Off the Coast, Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Feature Article: Early Modern Shipwrecks in the English Channel and Goodwin Sands

We encounter Goodwin Sands in La Garde Ecossaise when Robert Meldrum embarks on his sea journey across the English Channel from England to France:

❝

‘As we reached Deal in Kent a large gust of wind suddenly slammed into the ship, threatening to drive it off course. There was visible panic amongst the Captain and his crew, with the Captain shouting “Beware the Widowmaker!” The Widowmaker or Goodwin Sands is a somewhat serene looking sandbank but even under threatening skies it held a dark secret which justified its name’.

La Garde Ecossaise Book 1 25

The Widowmaker: the Reputation of Goodwin Sands

The Goodwin Sands are several sandbanks that lie four miles off the coast, adjacent to Deal in Kent. As Richard Larn states: ‘Its capacity to claim ships and then seemingly to break and swallow them without trace is legendary, as its ability to change shape and position’.

Bibliothèque nationale de France, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Contemporaries in the early modern period were aware of the deadly perils of the Goodwin Sands, and just not in England. The sands had destroyed a fair number of foreign vessels from France, Spain, Flanders and the United Provinces, the maritime community across Europe knew about the terrible and deadly Goodwin Sands.2

In 1672 John Sellers in his Coasting Pilot described the ‘The Goodwins’ and offered advice to sailors:

‘The Goodwin is a sand that lyeth before the Downs and is from the shore, in some parts four miles and in some five; the southern half lies S.S.W. and N.N.E. rounding towards the South-Foreland, the northern part of it lies North & South, rounding to the East side, and is in most places steep too; at the North end there is indifferent good shoaling. The sand, by storms and strong Tydes, alters every year, is very broad, and dries a very great part of it, but most of it to the North end. The Marks for to go clear out of North-sand-head, Is to bring St Peter’s steeple on Broad-stairs Peer ; this Mark will direct you by it in five or six fathom, according to the Tyde; and in the Night, the Light on the North-Foreland North-West, halt West. The Mark for South-sand-head, Is the steeple of Ring-joul, on the Village called Kings-down, or the Light-Houses on the South-Foreland together. From this sand, spits out against the Brake, a sand called the Burnt-head, which is very steep too, having eleven fathom close to it. The North end lyeth off Broad-Stairs about six miles, and the South end, about three miles off the shore. If you, coming from the West, do keep Folkston Land open of Dover Land, it will carry you without South-sand-head’.3

John Seller, The Coasting Pilot (London, 1672).

The extent and the complexity of these instructions highlight just how complex it was an area to navigate, even if you were an experienced captain. This also gives us an insight into why so many ships were destroyed and swallowed by the Goodwin Sands. Indeed, ‘own neglect’ i.e human error was a significant cause of shipwrecks on the Sands, so much so there were efforts to improve the light houses on that part of the coast.4

At least 100 ships perished on the Goodwin Sands between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries.

Willem van de Velde the Younger, A Ship in a Raging Storm [1703]. Rijksmuseum Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Ships Lost to the Goodwin Sands in the Early Modern Period

Many wrecks cannot be identified by name but those that can be named include:

1585 Dolphin

1592 St Peter

1593 Red Lion

1593 Golden Lion

1616 Abraham

1616 Jonas

1616 Phoenix

1617 Johanne

1618 Blind Fortune

1618 Sampson

1618 The Golden Wagon

1621 Ark Noah

1623 Ann Lyon

1624 White Swan

1624 Dolphine

1625 Golden Rose

1625 Moon

1627 King David

1642 Providence

1654 Report

1656 James

1657 Rochester

1658 Princess Maria

1661 Blind Fortune

1668 Hamburg

1669 John

1670 Dilligence

1674 Nightingale

1670 Wapen Van Ullissingen

1675 Florentine

1675 St Toby’s

1677 Providence

1678 Margaret

1678 Portsmouth

1681 Unity

1682 Orange Tree

1688 Sedgemore

1693 HMS Windsor Castle

1697 Hope

1697 Madre Dios5

Weather and God’s Wrath: Why Ships Sank in the Goodwin Sands

To the modern mind the causes of shipwrecks running aground on Goodwin Sands are simple. A survey of contemporary printed material on the subject points squarely to poor weather, both in peace and war, as being the main culprit.6

Yet we must remember that the early modern mind was not like our own. The world and the universe were God’s creation, and he alone dictated the destiny of individuals and men in general. God was all seeing and all knowing and many Protestants believed that if God was angry with mankind, God would express this through natural disasters, bad weather and human death and suffering. Indeed, an excellent pamphlet which acts as a window into the early modern mind regarding shipwrecks is a pamphlet called The Wonders of the Windie Winter. Written by an anonymous author it reflects deeply on the disasters that have befallen people living on the coasts of England, both on land and sea, seeing them as God’s punishment upon the English nation.7

Pieter Mulier, A Ship Wrecked Off a Stormy Coast, National Maritime Museum Greenwich. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Within the first three pages of the pamphlet the author acknowledges the scale of the problem:

‘that within these fore passed moneths of October, November and December, the devouring gulfes of the sea hath swallowed up above two hundred saile of ships as well of our owne countrey, as of neigbouring nations with great store of passengers, sea-faring men and owners of the same, adventuring their deare lives in the managing of the aforesaid ships’.8

Today, we would put the failures down to poor weather forecasting and terrible weather but in the early modern period they had a different explanation for such tragedies.

In the first paragraph of the pamphlet the author cites the main cause of such tragedies, namely God’s wrath against the sins of mankind. God is angry, sending mankind a message to force it to change its sinful behaviour.9

Like many contemporaries at the time, the author does not just point to immediate events and tragedies but puts these in this context of wider events, whether that be the death of Prince Henry (the eldest son of King James I) and recent bouts of plague to demonstrate that God is angry with the transgressions of the English nation.10

Furthermore, like many of his fellow Protestant Englishmen he draws parallels between the terrible events in England and events in the Bible to demonstrate even more clearly that God is showing his displeasure with mankind.11

For Protestant Englishmen like this author, God’s anger knows no bounds, as God does not discriminate based upon nationality nor station in life. God’s wrath can be visited upon anyone. As the author states:

‘The narrow seas betwixt Dover and Calice [Calais] can witnes many like mishaps…it has been aported that upon the coast of France, there hath been floating, upon the waters in one weeke of foule weather, above seven hundred drowned persons of divers nations, as of English, Dutch and French, and Spanish’12

To appease God he suggests a petition or an agreement between the English people and God, promising to atone for sins. Again, this is not unusual by contemporary standards, especially amongst English Calvinists known as Puritans. (See Newsletter No 5 Foundations of the Early Modern World, Reformations, Sovereignty and the Printing Press). The idea of an agreement between people and God to atone for sins comes from the Bible, when the people of Israel made a Covenant or an agreement with God. Protestants believing they were also God’s people adopted this concept within their own national and religious contexts. In England, this resulted in several oaths in defence of the Protestant nation at times of crisis, especially against the Catholic foe, such as the failed invasion of the Spanish Armada in 1588, the Gunpowder Plot in 1605, or the Wars of the Three Kingdoms 1637-1652. We come across a Scottish Protestant example of this in the first chapter of La Garde Ecossaise, the Scottish National Covenant of 1638.13

The Scottish National Covenant at Huntly House Museum Edinburgh Kim Traynor, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

What was it like to be shipwrecked off the coast of Kent? The Experience of Gregory Crow

We are fortunate that a survivor of a shipwreck off the Kent coast published his account of his miraculous survival from being drowned on the sands. Yet, if you take a closer look at this pamphlet, you will find that it is not just a tale of survival but a demonstration of the power of God to show mercy to those who survived the deadly perils of the sands.14

The front page declares:

‘Shewing how this poor man threw away his Money, saying if it pleased God to preserved him sustenance; and that his whole care was to preserve the New Testament he had, by putting it into his bosome’.15

According to the pamphlet, the reason why Gregory survived the shipwreck is because he threw away his material goods and kept his New Testament close. The message is clear put God first, rather than material goods and God might save your life.

Rijksmuseum, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Understandably, the modern mind will be very cynical about this declaration but nevertheless this pamphlet contains some very fascinating, if not, morbid details about what it was like to be shipwrecked in the seventeenth century. It was due to the ‘foul weather’ that the boat sunk with water coming into the vessel. Within an hour the boat was broken to pieces with men clinging to the scattered pieces in the sea. It was at this point that Gregory Crow saw his copy of the New Testament floating in the water, grabbed it and put in his upper garments. He hoped that God would send a ship to save them all.16

He and others realising they could no longer cling to the remaining wooden structures of the boat decided to drift towards one of the sands and wait for rescue but with the changing tides this was just a temporary solution as the tide was coming in on the sands and the survivors feared they would be swept into the water again. Fearing all was lost and that they were about to die, they collectively gathered any money they had on their person. Upon giving it to Mr Crow, he threw it into the sea and declared, ‘‘If the Lord will save our lives he will provide us a living.’ Fearing it was near to the end they swam out to the mast of the ship and clung on to it for ten hours. Sadly, a young boy, who had survived the ordeal until that point through tiredness and exhaustion slid off the mast and drowned in the sea. Another man, the following night succumbed to hunger and waiting for help slipped away. Gregory Crow was the sole survivor of this sinking.17

Crow by this time was ‘in utter despair, and ready now to perish with watching, famine, and moreover miserably beaten with the seas, at last took the Mariners Cap from his head, and holding up the same with his arm, as high as he could, thought by shaking it as well as he might, to give them [fishermen] token of a better sight’. The fishermen who saw him move went to rescue him out of the water. Yet, Crow was in a very bad way with ‘his eyes, nose, and mouth were almost closed with salt’. On the way back to land on the fishermen’s ship, the fishermen, dressed Crow in dry clothes and gave him some tonic water which brought colour back to Crow’s face and clearly, they had saved his life.18

When he reached shore in Antwerp, Gregory Crow was given free clothes and treated to several free drinks in the local inns and taverns. He was treated like a celebrity and had a meeting with the English representative in the city.19

The Replica of the Batavia ADZee, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Batavia

In La Garde Ecossaise Meldrum states that Captain Lyon ‘had years of experience and as a former Scottish mercenary in the Dutch East India fleet he had reputedly sailed to the other side of the world on the infamous Batavia but people knew not to discuss this with him as it was known to make him drink more excessively’20

What was the Batavia and why was it infamous? The Batavia was a ship belonging to the Dutch East India company and was part of a fleet of ships that left the Dutch Netherlands for Dutch colonies in the Far East, but it did not reach its destination. It drifted so far off course that it became shipwrecked off the Western coast of Australia in the summer of 1629.

Events developed into a game of murder and survival as the captain’s appointed second in command sought to kill the remaining survivors to assert his authority. For more about this gruesome episode in seventeenth century history see this excellent overview of events and the archaeology by the Museum of Western Australia:

The Shipwreck Economy: The Case of the St Peter

Contemporaries were fully aware of the horrific human cost of shipwrecks off the English coast:

‘It hath been certified for a truth, that some of the greatest statesmen of the Land, that betwixt Michaelmas & Christmas last, the seas have bereaved 7000…and in the coast townes of England, neere the sea-side there are knowne to be fourteene hundred sea faring mens widows, beside fatherlesse children…& children fatherlesse’.21

But there was a material cost too through the loss of manpower, assets and goods. Indeed, the case of the St Peter, shipwrecked in 1592 offers insight into how such shipwrecks could benefit some unscrupulous Kent locals, albeit for a very short time.

The St Peter came from Amsterdam and was shipwrecked on the Goodwin Sands in November 1592. However, although the ship originated in Amsterdam it was a pivotal asset between merchants in Middleburg and merchants in London (one of which was a Dutch national) to enable them to transport goods across the English Channel.22

However, when the vessel was shipwrecked, there was not just a loss of goods carried by the sea but people. There was a whole illegal economy within coastal towns that sought to benefit from the misfortunes of others as well as those in the locality who wished to return goods to the original owners, where possible. Indeed, the Dutch merchants in London who were expecting goods from the St Peter sought to recover as much goods as possible, working with the Cinque Ports and the Lord Warden to do so. It is claimed that many inhabitants in these ports, ‘saved’ many of the goods. These goods were saved by inhabitants who lived all along the Kent coast including St Peter’s, Ramsgate, Isle of Thanet, Sandwich, Deal and Walmer. They were ordered to be delivered to the authorities so they could be given back to their owners.23

Yet, as expected there were some who sought to steal goods from the shipwreck for themselves:

Examinations of John Hawle, of St. Peter's, Isle of Thanet, fisherman, and nine others of Ramsgate, Deal, &c., before Thomas Fane, lieutenant of Dover Castle, Edw. Peake, mayor of Sandwich, and three other commissioners appointed bj' Lord Cobham, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, on nine interrogatories touching the carrying on shore and disposal of the goods of the St. Peter of Amsterdam, which came aground on the Goodwin Sands, 15 Nov. 1593.24

CSPD Elizabeth I Volume 3 1591-1594 394.

It was clear that around Canterbury there was an organised smuggling ring which sold stolen goods from shipwrecks for profit. Then, as now, it was a serious criminal offence, and the smugglers found themselves before the Lieutenant of Dover Castle for their actions.25

Dover Castle, Kent DeFacto, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

17th century trade token from Canterbury, Kent. The Portable Antiquities Scheme/ The Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

This was not uncommon but depending on the vessel and the goods stolen it could land people in serious trouble. Notes of names and places of residence would be taken by the authorities who would go door to door taking goods back and arresting people. In the case of the Red Lion of London and Golden Lion of Middleburg which ran aground on the Goodwin Sands like the St Peter, the seriousness of the offences were underscored by the vessels containing seditious books.26

Indeed, Dutch merchants did not fully trust the Kent locals and sent a Dutch ship to Sandwich to salvage as much of the goods as they possibly could. However, unsurprisingly the locals did not agree with this and would not permit the ship to load its cargo. The situation was so serious that Lord Burghley, one of Elizabeth Is chief ministers had to intervene ordering the Kent men to desist from their opposition as ‘The goods do not belong to the English, and the ship must be one acquainted with the havens of Holland’.27

The Legend of Goodwin Sands in Early Modern Drama and Poetry

Such was the notorious nature of the Goodwin Sands that they made an appearance in contemporary drama and poetry.

The most famous of these is The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare. In this play Two merchants in Venice are having a conversation about a fellow merchant that is sailing overseas:

SOL. Now what news on the Rialto?

SAL. Why, yet it lives there uncheck’d that Antonio hath a ship of rich lading wrack’d on the Narrow Seas; the Goodwins I think they call the place, a very dangerous flat, and fatal, where the carcasses of many a tall ship lie buried, as they say, if my gossip Report be an honest woman of her word.28

Even though this play was for an English audience who would likely know about the Goodwin Sands, especially London merchants, it is difficult not to imagine a similar conversation taking place in Spain, the United Provinces and France.

The Merchant of Venice. Otterbein University Theatre & Dance from USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Given the death toll on Goodwin Sands it should not be surprised that it gave birth to elegies for people who lost their lives such as Tears on the Death of Evander occasioned by the Lamentable losse of the truelie Noble and Generous Sir John Svynton Knight. Published in 1630 it was dedicated to a talented military man who lost his life on the Sands whilst he was on his way to Venice.29

Shakespeare was not the only famous literary figure to point to the Goodwin Sands in their work. Ben Jonson in his comedy His Case is Altered writes a passage whereby Inui who works with Valentine is curious about where Valentine has travelled. When Valentine has confirmed he has been to Constantinople, Inui replies, ‘And Jerusalem, and the Indies and Goodwine Sands and the tower of Babylon, and Venice and all’.30

Inui is perhaps conveying sarcasm here at Valentine’s boasting but it was to convey to the audience, sarcasm or not, that Valentine has sailed to far flung places and through dangerous seas.

I hope you have enjoyed the latest edition of the newsletter. If you are reading this newsletter on the web and have any questions please leave a comment below or you can email me at [email protected]

1  Richard Larn, Goodwin Sands Shipwrecks (London, 1977) 7.

2  Larn, Goodwin Sands Shipwrecks 31-46, 173-174.

3  John Seller, The Coasting Pilot ((London, 1672) 10-11.

4  The answers to the several objections, made against the lights for Goodwin Sands (London, 1641) 1.

5  List compiled from the map in Larn, Goodwin Sands Shipwrecks 30.

6  Anon, The Wonderful Preservation of Gregory Crow Being Shipwrakt Upon the Coast of Kent (London, 1679) 1; The Answer of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England to Three Papers Delivered Unto the Councel of State (London, 1652) 31;

7  Anon, The Wonders of the Windie Winter (London, 1613).

8  Anon, The Wonders of the Windie Winter (London, 1613) 3.

9  Anon, The Wonders of the Windie Winter 1.

10  Anon, The Wonders of the Windie Winter 1-3.

11  Anon, The Wonders of the Windie Winter 2.

12  Anon, The Wonders of the Windie Weather 5.

13  Anon, The Wonders of the Windie Weather 6; Edward Vallance, Revolutionary England and the National Covenant: State Oaths, Protestantism and the Political Nation 1553-1682 (Woodbridge, 2005) 6-81; Edward J. Cowan, ‘The Making of the National Covenant’ in John Morrill ed., The Scottish National Covenant in its British Context (Edinburgh, 1990) 68-83.

14  The Wonderful Preservation of Gregory Crow 1-3.

15  The Wonderful Preservation of Gregory Crow Title Page.

16  Anon, The Wonderful Preservation of Gergory Crow 1.

17  Anon, The Wonderful Preservation of Gregory Crow 2.

18  Anon, The Wonderous Preservation of Gregory Crow 2-3.

19  Anon The Wonderous Preservation of Gregory Crow 3.

20  MacKenzie, La Garde Ecossaise 19.

21  Anon, The Wonders of the Windie Winter 6-7.

22  Calendar of State Papers Domestic Elizabeth I Volume 3: 1591-1594 299.

23  CSPD Elizabeth I 307.

24  CSPD Elizabeth I 394.

25  CSPD Elizabeth I 471.

26  CSPD Elizabeth I 320.

27  CSPD Elizabeth I 421.

28  William Shakespeare, The Complete Works (London, n.d.) 656; Larn, Goodwin Sands Shipwrecks inset page.

29  Tears on the Death of Evander occasioned by the Lamentable losse of the truelie Noble and Generous Sir John Svynton Knight. (London, 1630) 1-7.

30  Ben Jonson, His Case is Altered (London, 1609) 7.

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