#489 Forton Lake Wrecks

I was down in Fareham, near Portsmouth, visiting a factory as part of my day job and had a few hours to kill. A hazy memory of some sort of abandoned wrecks came to mind and a few minutes internet searching led me to Gosport, about 20 minutes away from my hotel.

Although I had a compact camera on me (as I usually do when I travel) I found that my Adidas Samba’s were somewhat ill equipped for the muddy, seaweed strewn banks of Forton Lake and I found myself walking the narrow strip of sand at the edge of the ‘beach’. Likewise my inability to walk to far out without slipping violently on the seaweed or sinking in the mud meant having to zoom in and the 24-70 zoom on my Panasonic LX100 was a bit lacking. Note to self: take wellies and SLR next time I’m in the area.

As for the wrecks, they are a motley collection of hulks. The most prominent is Vadne, a former steam ferry turned naval launch turned ferry turned yacht club clubhouse. It’s been beached here since 2000 and looks well beyond salvation. The rest are a random collection of old ferry’s and naval boats, in varying degrees of dismantling and decay. Oh and a fishing boat that looks like a recent, possibly temporary, arrival.

Although there are maybe only 6 or 7 in these photographs, in total there are quite a few more either submerged or elsewhere on the creek. I’m not entirely sure why they’ve all been dumped here and why some have been partially cut up, but it made for a pleasant half hour or so that would have otherwise been spent being bored in my hotel room!