The Hathor & The Plympton (Wrecks)

 shipwreck, interesting place, draw only border

PLYMPTON, cargo steamer, BUILT 1893, SUNK 1909
HATHOR, cargo steamer, BUILT 1912, SUNK 1920
It's not often that you can explore two wrecks that really are one on top of the other.
But the Plympton and the Hathor on the Lethegus Rocks off St Agnes in the Scilly Isles provide exactly that kind of double-decker, writes Kendall McDonald.
First to sink was the 2869-ton steamer Plympton, built by Furness Withy in West Hartlepool. The single-screw ship was powered by three-cylinder triple-expansion engines with two boilers giving her 256hp. She was 314ft long with a beam of 40ft.
She was captained by Alexander Stewart with a crew of 24 and one passenger when she called at Falmouth from Rosario, Argentina. There she received orders to take her cargo of 4100 tons of maize in bags on to Dublin and discharge it there.
At midnight on 13 August, 1909, she ran into dense fog that lasted throughout the following day. Stewart knew he was in trouble.
The lead was used at short intervals and the siren sounded almost continuously. From 4am on 14 August, Captain Stewart set up a listening watch, with all hands on deck striving to hear the Bishop Rock foghorn. They still hadn't heard it when the Plympton ran on to Lethegus Reef, filled with water and was abandoned. The crew and passengers landed safely on St Agnes.
Once the islanders were satisfied that all were safe, they set about the ancient Scilly practice of stripping the wreck, which they found hard aground by the bow. However, while they worked the Plympton rose with the flood tide and, without warning, capsized and sank. Two men who were below were drowned.
Eleven years later, on 2 December, 1920, a bigger ship sank on top of the Plympton. The 7060-ton German Hathor was 465ft long with a beam of 60ft, built in 1912 with 482hp triple-expansion engines and two boilers. She was interned in Chile during WW1, when her main engine was neglected and was considered very suspect.
Despite this, after the Armistice she sailed for Portland with a full cargo of nitrate of soda and oil cake, but her engine broke down off the Azores.
She was taken in tow by two tugs, which lost her twice when the hawsers parted, and finally became unmanageable off the Scilly Isles on 1 December, 1920. The tow was slipped off St Agnes. Hathor stranded and finally sank to mingle with the wreck of the Plympton.
marine environment.