Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past Wirral History The Wreck off Hoylake

This Wreck has fascinated me for years, here's what I know about it and some pics, any further info would be great.

ARABIAN PRINCE was built in 1919 by Wm. Pickersgill & Sons at Sunderland with a tonnage of 5764grt, a length of 405ft, a beam of 52ft 4in and a service speed of 11 knots. Sister of the Persian Prince she was delivered in January 1919. She was sold to Turner, Brightman & Co. of London for operation as the Zenada by the 'Z' Steam Ship Co. in 1927. In 1933 she was acquired by Theofanos Maritime of Chios, with N. G. Livanos as managers, and renamed Nestos. On 2nd April 1941, during a voyage from New Orleans to Garston, she was wrecked in fog on the Hoyle Bank at the entrance of the River Mersey after being half a mile off course.

The wreck was used for target practice during the war.

Very interestying, some good shots, nice one for posting it mate!!

i am very interested in stuff like that to be honest, that was very good reading, if you get anymore info, please post it.....

maybe we shud set up a day where we sail or boat it over to it and look...

wow, never knew that was there.

Thanks for posting it

excellent find mate ,i have never heard anything about this

I belive there is another wreck out in the channel towards where the Bar Lightship used to be...

it is my goal in life ya know.....to dive s shipwreck, i really wanna do it ya know!!!!

i want to do one thats just of the Cyprus coast....

thats interestying that m8 good job

Thats awesome..I never knew that even existed..cheers

Before i joined Cruisewirral (Due to not letting Hotmail users join btw) I joined MerseyCruise. One of the lads on there had a black 206...and he took photos of his car on the coast somewhere, where they had an old rusty ship that looked lke it had been sunk or something.

Cant really give any info, but does anyone know if this is on the Wirral at all???

i think taht ship was carrying ammo when it sank there has been a few controlled explosions out thear over the years my dad fishers out there alot and has found a few shells on the hoyle bank that have washed up try and get some pics of them and post them on ps. allways check hight and time ov the tide be safe

i dont think it was carrying ammo, the shells are all spent ones from when it was used for target practice. I have heard it was carrying oranges and crates of them where washed up for weeks afterwards

this is good stuff the info is out there it just needs digging up

very intresting never new that exsisted! will have to go an have a look

There are lots of wrecks in the Dee, most vessels cant navigate it now, as it has silted up; but at one time it was far busier than the river mersey. There was lots of intentional wrecking there and many of the ships ended up washed up in moreton and wallasey which gave rumour to the wallasey wreckers. However that is only a myth as the wreckers were in hoylake & west kirby, it was just the ships cargo and contraband which was taken to wallasey & bidston.

wow there great them pictures.
That's wiki challenge i would think.....

Its great the way you have presented this topic,
easy to find and understand where it is and your pictures
make it easy to locate too.

Thanks for sharing

wow never knew that nice one

nice one colgo, i didnt know that existed, with it being on sand surrounded by water my curiosity will probably lead me to a watery grave! how do you sleep at night?

"Mostly Drunk, and on top of people"

- Charlie Harper 2007

You may be joking,but I would like to make it very clear you CANNOT walk out to the wreck, it always surrounded by water and is only visable at low tide. The tide comes in very quickly here and you can easily get cut off and drown....

I will be able to sleep at night now

Not to mention the likelyhood of quicksand.

Tis a shame you can't get to it!

So come on then people, who's had a go?

That is amazing. All the times I've been to red rocks and never noticed it. Probably thought it was just a sandstone outcrop.
Fantastic! This is what I really like about WikiWirral - people talking about things that have always been there but you just don't know about (e.g. Stanlow Abbey).

I wanna go as far out as possible one day, see how close one can get, but i value my safety too much

Maybe in the summer though, if we ever get one.

ha ha it'd be fun but you'd end uplike them cockle pickers a few years ago

If we left you there long enough you might fossilise. A polystrate man.

Heh could be fun!

you free next saturday then?

Too cold lmao!

we can hug to share the warmth if it too cold. only jokin i can't swim

Fossilised men hugging - what will the future's anthropologists think?

Scott likes swimming in the sea in winter... well, arsing about at least. He will go with you im sure, anything to get dirty is Scott.

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thats ace

i remember when you first made that

Hire a small hovercraft and go out there.

Youll be safe then, whatevers thrown at you

Where can we hire a hovercraft?

Hovercraft Hiring Shop???

I dont know tbh, there must be some form of small business or something that will let you.

Can we go out there in your Micra now that you are no longer using it?

It will be like a beach buggy lol!!!

Well, as long as it doesnt get destryed in process

Need to sell that now, to try and match the price of the Alfa..being a Student, times arent good for me.



I know they sell pleasure hovercrafts. and Im sure they use Hovercrafts on the beaches, so they dont sink. Maybe persuade coastguard to take you out it one?

Ow about one of these...

No Dice !!!



That thing could be overturned by a Mersey Trout, let alone any waves you may come across.



Stick with Hovercraft

Hmmm just had a thought, there is supposed to be a whirlpool out by Hilbre Island, so I dunno if we should risk it or not??

Yep, a ghostly Whirlpool. A whirlpool, that cant suck anything in that isnt touching it...Such as a Hovercraft...

Oh the beauty of Hovercraft.

Seriously man, we shall have to venture out there in the summer, and see how near we can get, safety would be paramount of course.

I dont expect to reach it, but would love to get nearer, get some better photo's...

Wow some good pics of the wreck,ive heard of it but never seen it ...

wish you were here folks

How random - are you at the Wreck Matty

At low tide yesterday I went out to the waters edge to photograph the wreck, unfortunately there was a strong inshore wind, so the tide didn't go all the way out and it turned early.

I will be going out again today (21st Jun 2009) - weather permitting, setting of from Red Rocks at about 1615, the tide is supposed to turn at 1700. If anybody wants to join up, meet me on the micro-hilbre that is on the way to the wreck about 200yds off shore. Look for the camera in hand, probably two of use.

If anybody goes out on these sands - please check the tide information - the gullies fill very quickly and have fast flowing currents. There is also sinking sand in places which isn't normally a problem but you have to be on your alert.

The next lowest tide point is the 25th so probably will try to get out there again when we should get quite a bit closer.

DD a very low tide is your best bet not only you get near to wreck the Hoyle bank doesn't get covered by the tide if you get stuck play safe and give your self plenty of time..

if this is any help DD here is the tide timetable below

Click Here

DD - how did you get on?

Not like this I hope -

the first of your pics looks like theres a giant shark just to the left

No-one have a small boat the could sail out to have a closer look in ?

Thanks for posting this. I never knew it was there.

LOL - Right, the tide yesterday didn't go out any further than the day before, I will put a pictures up later, as we were there we went along to Hilbre Island, Middle Eye and then back to Hoylake. It was raining with a medium inshore wind which didn't help the tide or photography.

Both the route along the Sealine to Hilbre Island and the route from middle eye to Hoylake can only be attempted at low tides and are not recommended at all - an additional hazard are numerous patches of sinking sand.

My next attempt will be on the 25th, setting off from Red Rocks at about 6:30 pm for low tide supposedly at about 7:15 (ideally the morning tide is lower and less wind but work gets in the way), I already have some interest, anyone wanting to come along then please PM me and I will swap phone numbers and details.

Even with lower tides I don't think I can get close enough to get a good picture with my camera equipment (X3 7 Megapixel Still, X30 1.3 Megapixel Video). However I will keep trying, if the wind isn't inshore it will get us nearer.

Here is a picture of what I am trying to photograph, just the boilers and something else sticking out ...

25th I will be okay to do ifyou want dd; and yeah Chewy, I was there with Scott, we got quite near, and the tide was still going out, but it got too cold as soon as the sun went down and neither of us had coats (we were only originally planning to go the red rocks for Sunset photo's lol).

We are meeting on Thursday at Red Rocks (bottom of Stanley Road, Hoylake) at 6:30 pm for anyone that wants to join.

You will get muddy (stinky, sticky muddy), as well as wet - there are pockets of sinking sand which usually sink 4 to 6 inches deep and underneath the top sand is this horrible black gunge.

22nd August will be the best date this year to try, but nowhere near as good as March 2nd next year!

Did you go out on a boat to get that photo am there now n cnt get out like that even with me zoom at 600mm/21.7x and then zoomin into the photo some more on preview! Lol.

DD black gunge = crude oil.

I thought that as well, but no it is just a load of organisms having a field day - the result is similar to oil but the smell is awful!

As I said above, its unlikely that you can get far enough out to get a decent pic - but it is quite nice out there so far from the shore - just doing it for a bit of fun really ...... but one day the wind mught be offshore

The tide was still on its way out when I left (8ish), it may have gone quite a bit further out, I had been there since 06:30 and got a bi bored and a bit cold, but I think ya gonna need some serious telephoto lenses to get any decent photo's of it from the shoreline.

The closer you get to it, the further away you realise it is!

Shame!

And I think, having tried on a 1m tide, that anyone who is thinking we might get there one day, im gonna have to dash your hopes, bar a freak tide retraction, you've got no chance, unless...

a. you can get access to a boat;
b. your names Eric;
c. you names Moses.

Captain Eric Moses at your service sir LOL

go down to the slip way wiral contry park boat yard and ask the local fishermen to take some pictures of the wreck (its worth a try)

There was an offshore wind tonight and the tide went out further than previously - what I need now is a force ten offshore wind - that doesn't blow me out to sea.

The objective wasn't to get photographs of the wreck (the one earlier in the thread is near perfect) - it was just a bit of fun to try and take photographs of the weck. I was hoping a bit of competition would start up - come on Matty, show us your pictures - photochoppin/enhancement fully allowed.

The circular walk - hoylake - wreck shore - Hilbre - middle eye - hoylake is really good walk - see different things each time. BUT PLEASE CHECK TIDES AND BEWARE OF SINKING SANDS.

Would a 400mm lens be of use??

i can agree to this it was an amazin walk apart from the knee deep in slugde gunk and mud but yet still good fun.



im sure we could find a use

In theory the 400mm on the cropped body makes it 640mm. When I have the pennies to buy the teleconverter I want it'll be 896mm.

Oh and the lens will be quite good too

I was shooting at between 300 and 600mm and its useless, even cropping the image (12.3mp RAW) brings up very little detail.

900mm might be getting somwhere mate if your interested. Id get myself onto ebay for a 900mm lens but im not all that interested in photographing it, wanted to get to it really, or at least try lol. Its just too far away to be honest, the nearer you ge to it, the further away it seems, I think it's as you realise how far away it actually is, from the shoreline it hard to grasp it until you are right out as far as the tide goes, and then its still miles away.

i reckon thats good idea. Or the lifeboat men on training exercise.

Don't suppose anyone went out today did they? There was an immensely low tide (0.7m) this morning.

Still looking to go out on the 22nd August though, 0.4m tide is still confirmed. Will be the lowest tide of 2009.

Saw a bit more of this today, it was a low tide, and I don't have a fancy camera, but it seemed that there was more on show than previously, and also the sand seemed to go all the way out, sure it's not the case, but wouldn't mind a look.

Thats a Great pic sally

Cheers, it's only a point and shoot, but we were on Hilbre, it was an extremely low tide, and I took this a little while before low tide, there was even more on view. Need a decent camera so I can get better shors.

some good pics on www.flickr.com, search for Nestos and Hoylake.

If you look very closely at the third picture down, you will see my Dad clinging to the top flat bit. He quite often gets wrecked off Hoylake!!

Does your Dad get "Plastered"?

God,that wreck has been there since before most of us were born,go on Tatey dust down the gear and take him down.

I have a feeling that the visibility might be a bit poor there & also the "Hoylake Pirates" will have removed any scrap of value, so I will just stay in The Plasterers!!

Haha!! Nice pub that. Useless quiz team though!! :-)

Just reading through the thread. Some good info. I did not even know there was a ship wreak there.

I did a quick search on the ship, came up with this.

http://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?67306

How do I view pictures posted in a post 21st May 2008 by Colgo

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You can find some pictures on Google:

http://www.hoylakejunction.com/photo-hoylake-shipwreck

Type "arabian prince shipwreck hoylake"