Isles of Scilly Wreck Map
3 wrecks in Isles of Scilly, United Kingdom. Recorded depths: 37–40 m. View on map
HMS Association
The wreck of HMS Association in 1707 had profound implications for maritime navigation. The catastrophic grounding on the Isles of Scilly, which also claimed three other ships, resulted in the loss of over 2,000 lives, including Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell. This disaster highlighted the need for accurate navigation, leading to the establishment of the Board of Longitude in 1714, which spurred the development of the marine chronometer. She met her end on 22 October 1707 due to navigational errors in the Celtic Sea. Rediscovered in 1967, the site has yielded artefacts like anchors and cannons, though much of the treasure was dispersed.
MV Cita
Scillonians woke in March 1997 to find their beaches strewn with cargo of every kind, from tobacco to computer parts, after gale-force winds had driven the Cita ashore on Newfoundland Point. The scenes that followed became a modern-day 'wrecking' sensation, and the national media covered the story. The ship herself broke apart and came to rest in two separate sections of very different character. Her bow section begins at just 8 metres and slopes down to 27, whereas the stern falls away as deep as 40 metres. Each of the two still holds a substantial amount of steel structure, cargo holds and passageways among it, and both lie in the Atlantic-washed waters that surround Scilly.
SS Hathor
The German Hathor, dragged helplessly from her tow across the Atlantic in 1920, came to rest directly on top of the British Plympton, wrecked in fog back in 1909. The tangled marriage of the two hulls creates a complex underwater landscape where it is genuinely difficult to tell where one vessel ends and the other begins. The Hathor's triple-expansion engines and twin boilers provide the main orientation points, clearing at around 25 metres with the seabed falling away to 33.