The government has granted protection to the wreck of a ship that was captained by the brother of the Romantic poet William Wordsworth.
The Earl of Abergavenny, part of the East India Company fleet, sank in stormy weather about 1.5 miles off the Dorset coast of Weymouth in February 1805.
Among the 250 crew and passengers who drowned was the ship’s captain, John Wordsworth, who had embarked on a life at sea to help support his brother’s writing career.
The ship, on its way to Bengal and China, went down with 62 chests of silver dollars, estimated to be worth £70,000, the equivalent of about £7.5m today.
The East India Company had been formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, and at its height dominated trade between Europe and south and east Asia. It fought wars using its own army and navy, and colonised modern-day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Myanmar.
During the 17th and early 18th centuries, the company trafficked enslaved people taken from Africa. Many British people became rich on the back of trade in human beings, cotton, silk, porcelain and tea.
Historic England, the body that advises the government on protecting the historic environment, said: “From our extensive historical research into the wreck of the Earl of Abergavenny, there is no suggestion it was ever involved in the slave trade. However, the East India Company is associated with the exploitation of people and places.”
William was opposed to the slave trade. In 2020, a descendant of the poet, Christopher Wordsworth Andrew, said the ship John captained had not been involved in trafficking people.
“John on the Earl of Abergavenny, the ship he drowned on, wasn’t trading slaves. It wasn’t a slave-trading ship. It was colonialism, sure. He was buying and selling spices. But he wasn’t [the Bristol slave trader Edward] Colston,” he told the Times.
After losing his brother in the shipwreck, William’s writing style became bleak and reflective.
The wreck lies about 16 metres below the sea’s surface, and there are “substantial structural remains of the hull”, according to Historic England.
The wreck has not been fully excavated. The protection it has been granted means divers can access the wreck but its contents must remain in situ.
Duncan Wilson, Historic England’s chief executive, said: “This wreck has an evocative story to tell about the life and sorrow of one of our most renowned poets, William Wordsworth. But it also has an important place in this country’s shared maritime history and how the East India Company’s fleet made its impact across so much of the world.”
