Twenty years ago, on Sunday 12th September, Camber residents awoke to find possibly the largest piece of “beach debris” they had ever seen on our shores! 1175 tons of cargo coaster – the Indian registered Maanav Star!
She, and her crew of 12, had left Rye on Saturday night having just unloaded her cargo of timber. They then set sail, apparently headed for Southampton to pick up a cargo of cars bound for India, when she was caught in extremely heavy seas and a force 9 gale which came with the night tide. Severely pounded by the seas, and buffeted by the wind, her anchor dragged and her engines apparently lost power resulting in her being washed ashore at Jury’s Gap just before dawn. She had also sustained some damage to her hull, which was, thankfully, not too severe.
The emergency services were called and arrived in force to assess the situation. As her holds where empty, and she was now effectively “high and dry”, it was agreed these be filled with sea water to prevent her being washed further along the shore in the following tides. This was accomplished before the tide turned with the able assistance of the Rye Fire Service. The crew was lifted off the vessel and housed in nearby Pontins until a solution was reached.
Over the next days, a generator was sourced to assist in resuming her services. Specific equipment, tugs, salvage consortiums, were brought together to create a towage plan – all of which, of course, would be dependent upon the weather, height of tides, etc.
Several dates were planned, namely 13th, 16th, 17th and 18th September, but these were unfortunately unsuccessful, mostly because the tides were not high enough. Finally, on Monday 27th September, with the required high tide, a Dutch tug succeeded in pulling the ship away and diggers moved in to clear up the hole she had made on the beach! Once off the beach, she was turned to face the sea and began to move as she was towed away to begin her new trip to Holland where she would be repaired.
Based on a recent report from a website called “marinetraffic.com” – it appears she is still plying her trade on our oceans to this day!
Note: The Maanav Star was not the first large ship to be stranded on our beach.
- In the winter of 1908, a bad storm caused the Steam Ship Cracogwald to wash up on our shore. After several unsuccessful attempts to free the ship from our sand, it took the ingenuity of a team from Rother Iron Works to resolve the problem. They created a system of linking 40-gallon drums together and dug these into the sand all around the vessel. When the next big tide came in, with the advantage of the additional buoyancy, she floated free and was towed out to sea by large steam tugs!
- In 1898 the Swedish sailing ship “Silo” was not so lucky. Although her cargo was unloaded, all attempts to refloat her proved futile and, sadly, she was finally left to be battered to pieces by our winter storms.
