Mortar Wreck
Marker: recorded wreck position (Date not recorded).
Key facts
| Name | Mortar Wreck | Wikidata label |
|---|---|---|
| Ship type | shipwreck | Wikidata P31 instance of |
| Sea / ocean | English Channel | Natural Earth marine areas (public domain), point-in-polygon |
| Nearest coast | England | official dataset |
| Position | 50.6585, -1.9259 | Historic England Protected Wreck Sites, listed latitude/longitude (OGL v3) |
| Protected Wreck | List entry 1474570 | Historic England |
| Designated | 2022-06-06 | Historic England |
| Restricted area | 0.79 ha | Historic England |
| Grid reference | SZ0533384311 | Historic England |
About the wreck
The Mortar Wreck is the name for a shipwreck located off the Dorset coast of England near the Poole Harbour, dated to the middle of the 13th century. It is the oldest protected shipwreck site in England with a hull still surviving. While the exact cause of its sinking is unknown, it is suspected that the weight of the cargo on the ship may have led to it. The site has been known since 1982, but it was not discovered to be a shipwreck until 2020. Artefacts recovered from the wreck were moved to a gallery in the Poole Museum in 2025.
Diving & visiting
This is a designated Protected Wreck under the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973. Under the Act, diving on or otherwise interfering with the wreck inside its restricted area requires a licence; see the Historic England list entry for details.
Location
- Recorded position: 50.6585, -1.9259 (Historic England Protected Wreck Sites, listed latitude/longitude (OGL v3); may be approximate)
- Sea / ocean: English Channel
- Nearest coast: England
Wreck positions on this site are for interest only and are not for navigation. Many wrecks are war graves or legally protected: never disturb human remains or remove artefacts, and check local law before diving.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Mortar Wreck (revision 1347758649), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; condensed by selecting paragraphs; citations and formatting removed. No text added. This excerpt is available under the same licence.
Protected Wreck data © Historic England 2026. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Wreck facts from Wikidata (CC0).
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Browse more: UK & Ireland wrecks · wrecks off England · English Channel