One of the finest maritime books written is 'Shipwrecks of the Yorkshire Coast' by Arthur Geodfrey & Peter Lassey (published in 1974 by Dalesman Books). They spent many years researching details about the wrecks along the Yorkshire Coast, and this was pre-internet, so they had to write to Lloyds of London Insurance Agents etc. They state that 'The East Coast holds the record for the largest number of sea disasters around the British Isles'. They estimate that 50,000 mariners have drowned around the coast of Britain. The Durham coastline is technically the most littered with wrecks due to it, not being the longest, but one where a huge amount of shipping took place for the coal trade. That trade helped Scarborough as we were allowed to charge a levy on colliers taking refuge here on their way to London. The worst storms were in the 1880s when many vessls had no 'plimsol line' or board of trade certification.
Courtesy of the authors and publisher here are a few of their handmade maps:
List of ships wrecked on Yorkshire Coast click here:
Excellent search engine for worldwide ship wrecks click here:
