JOHN WORDSWORTH BRONZE PLAQUE

STONE PIER, WEYMOUTH

DID you know that the brother of poet William Wordsworth drowned off the coast of Weymouth?

John Wordsworth was captain of the Earl of Abergavenny, an outward bound East India Company ship which struck the Shambles Bank off Portland Bill during a gale on the bitter winter's night of February 5 1805.

A rising tide finally freed her and although flooding fast, the Captain and crew tried desperately to beach her on Weymouth Sands but they lost the battle and she tragically sank two miles from the safety of the beach.

Over 250 passengers, troops and crew drowned in the wreck.

Many were buried at All Saints Church, Wyke Regis in an unmarked grave, others at St Ann's, Radipole and St Andrew's, Preston.

William Wordsworth wrote a poem dedicated to his brother and all those who perished which is reproduced on the plaque.