THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE - The Wreck Indiana and the Findon Orange

Our

Sussex coastline can boast to be one of the most wreck-rich regions in the English Channel. Many victims have been claimed over the centuries owing to fierce currents and shallow banks. Treacherous seas can appear from nowhere when the tide changes or if the weather deteriorates catching the unwary or unlucky.

Originally the nearby Worthing lifeboat had no slipway opposite where it was housed. It had to be pulled half a mile along the front to the pier by horses-power. Then two horses pulled the lifeboat down the shore into the sea where it slid off into the water. It was held by a towline to the pier — manned by anyone around at the time. In fact, all of the local boys were on hand. There was one day when the horses were not available quick enough and the lifeboat had to be manhandled along the front and then down the beach to launch it.

The last lifeboat to be stationed in Worthing was launched in 1901 amidst great celebration. Many lifeboats from adjoining towns came to join in the procession round the decorated town.

I think the most intriguing and interesting wreck is the 2,266-ton Hull-registered British SS INDIANA cargo trading steamship built in 1889, 277 ft. x 38 ft., bound for London from Venice via Valencia. She went down on Friday 1st March 1901 within sight of the Half Brick Inn in East Worthing after being crippled by a collision near Owers in dense fog with the German steamship CITY OF WASHINGTON on her way to New York.

She is about a mile our from Worthing Pier.

She was towed by tug and and when the crew abandoned ship she drifted helplessly and was grounded a mile south of Worthing Pier.

Position 50 47.03' N 000 22.12'W.

The tug and the CITY OF WASHINGTON rescued the crew and took them to Newhaven.

The last sight of the INDIANA as she went under the waves.

A nostaligic look at the Henry Harris Worthing lifeboat returning from the Indiana wreck. An intrepid Victorian photographer captured this scene looking north-east from the far end of the Worthing Pier.

Thirteen crew manned the HENRY HARRIS Lifeboat from nearby Worthing beach on that day. Standing forward is the bowman Steve Wingfield. Pulling hard at the oars are the gallant crewmen Mark Marshall, George Wingfield, Harry Blann, George Newman, William Wells, Joe Street, George Benn, George Belton, Frank Collier and William Cousins. While commanding the stern is the Coxwain, Harry Marshall, wearing a sou'wester and controlling the rudder by means of a yoke line over each shoulder. Next to him is his assistant, the Second Coxwain Bill Blann.

Here is a watercolour of the above scene by the Sussex artist, Richard Marsh, of the Henry Harris lifeboat and crew returning from the wrecked steamship Indiana on 1st March 1901.

Worthing's lifeboat being brought ashore after attending the wreck of the SS INDIANA on 1st March 1901.

The INDIANA's cargo was of a general nature, plus oranges and lemons. The crates of fruit broke open and thousands of oranges and lemons spilled out and were bobbing around in the surf and ended up on the shoreline from Goring to Rottingdean. They were retrieved in large quantities by the locals who no doubt set about eating them and making marmalade.

The scene of broken orange and lemon crates on the beach.

Costermongers arrived with their horse and carts and other stallholders arrived with baskets and sacks to collect the fruit. By the time the salvage boat turned up the following day, the beach had been picked clean. One beachcomber unfortunately lost his life after he waded into the crashing sea to grab more fruit and was bowled over by an unexpected wave.

Of course, the coastguards attempted to impound the cases of fruit washed up intact but those broken against breakwaters were left to the beachcombers ... who had virtually turned into a mob.

Here is the Findon mummified orange from the INDIANA ......

29th January 2005

alerie

Can you guess what this is?

If I mention the wreck of the Indiana .....

My Grandmother then a schoolgirl of 12 went down to the beach, picked up an apronful of oranges and kept one as a souvenier.

It has not changed in the 60 odd years I have known it.

Pam.

Pam Stepney, Findon Village, West Sussex.

30th January 2005

Dear Valerie,

Oranges and Lemons

Whilst Pam Stepney's Grandmother was busily collecting oranges from the Indiana, my Grandfather was holding an emergency meeting of a Town Council Committee in his front room overlooking the beach, determining whether the oranges were the property of the ship owners or the finders.

The meeting went on long enough to allow my father and his brothers to get a good quantity of oranges into his cellar, before the fruit was declared still the property of the ship owners!!!

Politicians just don't seem to change over the years, do they!

Fascinating to see that oxen still worked in Sussex into the last century. Another gem from the website of websites. We have learned to expect and enjoy such surprises ...... and we appreciate them!

Thanks Valerie ............ Mike.

Mike Cooksey, Bristol

Today there is a plaque near the Worthing Pier giving details of the shipwreck of the INDIANA.

The INDIANA lay submersed at a depth of 40 feet and was later dispersed (levelled) by explosives because she was a navigation hazard to shipping.

oday much of her is now visible including large ribs sticking out of the sand and a bathroom has become exposed, complete with taps and china washbasin.

The INDIANA became known as the Orange Wreck but this was not the end of the story.

A very large anchor appeared 500 yards out at sea near the Plantation at nearby Goring in 2000. It was thought to have been brought to the surface by the storms on Christmas Eve, then dragged there by a fishing boat. The seven foot iron crosspiece stuck up out of the beach and obviously it could not just stay there, a hazard to passing jet-skis. A bulldozer waded into the sea and hauled it to the top of the sea wall. Where was it from?

It was considered to be from the three-masted schooner KINGSHILL which ran aground carrying a cargo of manure at that spot on 17th February 1915.

The Worthing lifeboat being launched in 1915.

The Worthing lifeboat capsized twice during the dramatic rescue and

one of the lifeboat crew was drowned. On the other hand it could have possibly been from the INDIANA which sunk off Worthing Pier in 1901 and scattered thousands of oranges and lemons on the beach.

In June 2001 another fishing boat was trawling for skate and bass 11 miles south of Shoreham Harbour and caught a maritime relic in the shape of an 18 ft. long anchor weighting about two tons and made of hammered steel. The skipper of the trawler SOUTHERN STAR was unable to lift the giant find he had snagged off the seabed and so dragged it five miles inshore to shallower water so that divers could take a closer look. The salvage 45-ft. long catamaran VALKYRIE employed two winches to get the anchor aboard in an operation lasting three hours.

It was decided it would have originally had a wooden stock and was in reasonably good condition with only a few patches of rust and barnacles. It was again believed that the anchor could have came from the steamship INDIANA which sank off Worthing Pier in 1901. Who knows for sure!

I can confidently report this wreck is now much broken up and the ship's plates have been gradually flattened by the many tides and waves

Continue if you would like to read about The Great Pier Disaster of 1913.