Pilot the Isle of Wight: Puckaster Cove to Bembridge

Navigational tips and beauty spots around the south-east coast of the Isle of Wight.

Puckaster Cove to Bembridge

HMS Eurydice

HMS Eurydice founders in a katabatic snow storm. Graphic: Illustrated London News

In 1878 a young Winston Churchill lived with his parents in Flint Cottage on Wheeler’s Bay Road, Ventnor. From the end of his street on 22 March, he watched HMS Eurydice, a Royal Navy training frigate with 26 guns, enter Sandown Bay towards the end of her passage from Bermuda to Portsmouth. Under full sail and with gun ports open, Capt Hare failed to notice a black cloud sweeping over St Boniface Down. A violent katabatic snow squall engulfed the ship and by the time it had passed only her topmasts were visible. Of the 364 crew, only two survived and, despite salvage of the hull shortly after the disaster, the ship is said to haunt the bay to this day.

  1. 1. Introduction
  2. 2. Reeth Bay and Puckaster Cove
  3. 3. Binnel Bay to Steephill Cove
  4. 4. Appuldurcombe House
  5. 5. Ventnor - the Palm Springs of Wight
  6. 6. HMS Eurydice
  7. 7. Ventnor Harbour
  8. 8. Wheeler's Bay to Steel Bay
  9. 9. Bonchurch - 'the prettiest place'
  10. 10. Rounding Dunnose Head
  11. 11. Darwin of Shanklin
  12. 12. Sandown at war
  13. 13. Culver Cliff
  14. 14. Whitecliff Bay
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