wreck of the astrea
With the recent passing of Bert Kilbride, either legend or pirate, depending on which side you listen to, some of the objects that he collected off the Horseshoe Reef and off the wreck of the Rhone are being auctioned and sold off by his widow. Bert dove on the reefs of Anegada for decades, and was may the one and only "receiver of wrecks here in the British Virgin Islands"
The powers that be were not too impressed with Bert left the islands without giving a detailed map of the location of all the shipwrecks he marked.
One of the more important wrecks was the ASTREA.
I have collected extensive information and pictures from these two sources: Go to Blytmann's site in particular for a much more detailed account of finding the Astrea, and go to Bert Kilbrides.
No, I don't know where the Astrea is, however, if I spend enough time trolling the reefs in the area, I am sure I will come across it!
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Bert Kilbrides collection of bottles
Astrea cannon
Bert Kilbride and Astrea cannon
Cannon
lode
cannon
Astrea stamp. You can see it in the stamp room at the Governor's museum
Deck plan of the Astrea
Chart of the shipwreck
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Some History:
The Astrea hit the Anegada Reef in the British Virgin Island on May 23rd, 1808. She was a 32 gun British Frigate under the command of Captain Edmund Haywood. 4 Men lost their lives. An officer and about 70 crew members made it to Virgin Gorda in one of the small boats. The Captain and the greater part of the crew made it to Anegada Island, less than 1 mile away.
One Hundred and sixty one years later on a calm sunny day in early 1968 Bert Kilbride took his step-son, Danny Valls, along with a college friend of Danny's, Bill Green, to the wreck site of the HMS Astrea. Bill had his underwater camera at the ready. Bert made sure they had the lift bags aboard with extra air tanks. They were after a small cannon Bert had spoted in a hole in the reef. After almost three hours of struggling they had the 3 foot bronze cannon aboard. Bert had his prize! And it was caught on tape!
On closer inspection of the cannon it was discovered to still have the wooden plug (tompion) in the bore and once that was removed they found a ball of heavy twine inside, probably a ball of matchlock fuse.
This cannon is solid bronze with a 2 inch bore. It measures 3 feet in overall lenght. It is 5 inches across at the front and 7 1/2 inches across at the back. The trunnions are 8 1/2 to 9 inches across. It weighs aprox. 300 pounds.
This cannon has recently been up for sale on EBAY, and I do think that I would love to start up a defense fund to buy the cannon back for the BVI. It belongs here.
Unfortunately, without proper care and being out of the sea water for so long, the cannon will be deteriorating daily.
I will get you the shortened version of the history...you can go to Blytmanns site for the longer version which he says is shortened!
-32 gun frigate overall length of 140 ft. Lower deck was 126'. Beam was slightly more than 35' Draft was 17' 6" She was launched in 1781 after being built at East Cowes, Isle of Wright. 220 men were on her roster!
The Astrea saw action in the American war of Independence. In April of 1795 she captured a larger french ship La Glorie in battle.
ASTREA then sailed for the West Indies were she participated in the capture of St. Lucia, St. Vincent and Grenada from the french. Shortly thereafter the english fleet left this part of the world, having lost 40,000 souls to battle, disease or fever.
In 1806 she was dispatched to Scandinavia where she arrived battered and beaten, and in a severe gale was almost totally destroyed, except for the quick thinking action of the crew and then afterwards she was taken to Copenhagen for a partial refit. She sailed afterwards to England for her new orders and was once again dispatched to the West Indies in early 1807 as new hostilites had broken out. This was all well and good until the Astrea headed south toward the Mona Passage between Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. So they thought. On the morning of May 23rd, they could see land to the southwest, which they consulted and decided was Puerto Rico as what else could it be?
Around 8 PM, George Lovet the Gunner was standing watch when he saw a line of white breakers appearing dead ahead. The warning came to late.
The ASTREA struck the reef hard and began to take on water. The wind was freshening and they were on a lee shore. Each swell made a sickening crash. The main and mizzen masts were cut away, and many of the cannons were thrown overboard to lighten the ship. This only made it worse and pushed them further up on the reef. About this time, several small boats appeared on the leeward side of the reef, but the seas stopped them from getting any closer. During the night the crew made up life rafts from the wood coming off the ship and in the morning they spied Anegada less then a mile away to the northwest. Most of the crew made it to Anegada. One boat with an office and about 70 men made it to Virgin Gorda.
In the next couple days, HMS Christopher, Jason and Galatea all anchored close by to help with the shipwrecked men. The wreck was abandoned approx two weeks after she broke up with only a few items being salvaged.
Fast forward 160 years. The approximate whereabouts of the wreck were known from a contemporary 19th century map and charts, and Bert Kilbride had Americans willing to finance the finding of the vessel
In October of 1967 a diving team set off for Anegada. What was believed to be the wreck was found shortly thereafter.
A number of the smaller articles were salvaged from the wreck, however, no attempt was made to salvage all the larger anchors and cannons. The wreck site is etremely exposed. The site is totally in the surf.
The salvaged articles include: (back in early 1800)_
Fore and main topsail yards, parts of the lower rigging, 30 hammocks, several boats belonging to Astrea, some stores, including barrels of salted beef, several coils of rope, one cable and anchore, one carronade and vairous pieces of hardware.
