The British Brig Water Nymph

The loss of the Water Nymph

Or ?'even an Englishman cannot take the liberty to deride a civil servant on German soil'. A report on the running aground of the Water Nymph, and letters sent by the Strandhauptmann in the fishing village of Prerow are preserved in the archives in Greifswald and provide more information on the loss of the vessel and the subsequent events (a Strandhauptmann and his subordinate Strandvoigt were civil servants responsible for wrecks and the rescue of shipwrecked mariners on a section of the coast; the Strandhauptmann for the Darß had his office in the fishing village of Prerow and answered directly to the royal government in Stralsund).

The Water Nymph stranded on 29 August 1875 around 11:30 p.m. in strong winds about 100 m off the Beach near Ahrenshoop, coming to rest with the port side facing the beach. The vessel had been en route from Lübeck to Vyborg in ballast with a crew of seven. After the ship was discovered around 6:30 in the morning, the Strandvoigt was notified by a worker from Ahrenshoop, and around 11 a.m. the crew was taken off by fishing boats from Prerow. The Strandvoigt assessed the situation and thought it possible to bring the ship off. In a letter dated 15 September 1875, Strandhauptmann Bathke informed the government in Stralsund about the events following the initial rescue: Captain Peck accepted the help of the Strandvoigt and was taken to Prerow to send some letters. When he returned to Ahrenshoop on 31 August he saw that the Strandvoigt had turned the vessel with the help of two heavy anchors, and that there was now no doubt that the Water Nymph could be brought off, once the ballast was removed. According to Bathke, Peck was very unhappy about this situation and started to complain and later also to insult everybody involved in the rescue. He refused to obey any of the orders given by the Strandvoigt, and did not allow the ballast to be removed. When asked how he wanted to proceed, he just answered that he was waiting for a reply from his underwriters in Scarborough. The Strandvoigt had to return to Ahrenshoop with all his helpers and Peck also sent his complete crew ashore.

When no further information was received from Peck, the Strandvoigt returned to Ahrenshoop on 6 September only to find the Water Nymph, which had survived running aground in heavy seas without damage, as a wreck full of water in calm seas. Peck had travelled to Rostock and on his return on 7 September blamed the Strandvoigt for having been aboard his vessel and refused to pay any of the costs of 444 Mark and 30 Pfennig for the rescue. His argument was that he didn't ask for the help that was given and thus didn't see the point of paying. He also declared the Water Nymph a wreck and started to salvage all the standing rigging and fittings. On 13 September, the Strandvoigt met one of Peck's underwriters in Ahrenshoop, who informed him that the wreck and inventory were to be sold by the English consul in Rostock.

As not all the replies from the royal government in Stralsund are preserved, it is unclear what happened to the wreck. No information about an auction of wreck and inventory could be found in the local newspapers. The current state of the wreck suggests that the vessel was broken up to the waterline. The sand probably prevented salvage of the lower hull from the level of the hold beams downwards. The letters written by the Strandhauptmann in Ahrenshoop indicate that Captain William Peck was not at all unhappy about the loss of his vessel and indeed did everything he could to prevent the re-floating of the Water Nymph. The reasons for this are clear: 35 was relatively old for a merchant ship of the period, and after the collision in 1875 the vessel was probably in need of expensive repairs. The stranding of the Water Nymph must have been a welcome and cost-effective way to dispose of the ship.

Strandhauptmann Bathke, however, was less happy about the outcome of the accident. His last letter (17 September) to the royal government in Stralsund ends: ?'Empfehlen duerfte es sich, wenn dem K. Peck klar gemacht wuerde dass solche Willkuerhandlungen, und ich moechte sagen, Verhoehnungen von Beamten auf deutschem Boden auch selbst einem Englaender nicht gestattet sind' [It is recommended to inform Captain Peck that such arbitrary acts, and I should say derision of civil servants on German soil, are liberties that even an Englishman cannot take].

Conclusion

The wreck of the Water Nymph is only one of over 1000 known wrecks off the coast of Mecklenburg Vorpommern. These shipwrecks represent a valuable archive of archaeological and historical information and give insight into aspects of maritime life, trade and warfare. Although several ship-finds have been excavated and surveyed in the last decades, most of these wrecks still await a first archaeological assessment. While geophysical surveys, and, especially in the Baltic, aerial photography, are useful methods for detecting wrecks, assessment and characterisation are only possible through underwater survey. This project has shown that even limited, and thus economic, systematic archaeological survey can produce sufficient information for a characterisation, and in this case also identification, of a wreck.

Through the identification, the wreck of the Water Nymph has been made available to other researchers as a source for maritime history of the 19th century, the age of industrialisation, a period of change which saw the increased use of iron in shipbuilding and the slow transition from sail to steam. Built in 1840, Water Nymph was a veteran merchantman when she stranded in 1875 after 35 years of constant use. However, even then, ships like Water Nymph still formed the backbone of regional trade and are thus an important part of our maritime and economic history.