MAKER'S MARK OF JOHN WAKELIN AND WILLIAM TAYLOR, LONDON 1784

The Earl of Abergavenny was launched in 1797. It was one of the English East India Company's largest ships at 1400 tons and was under the command of John Wordsworth, the brother of the famous poet William Wordsworth. The Wordsworth family had invested a large sum of money in the cargo that was to be shipped to Bengal and China. After it had left her homeport at Northfleet, Kent, a pilot was hired to help safely clear the channel in bad weather, within hours still in daylight and sight of Portland he struck Shambles Reef and went down. The captain and 271 drowned in the wreck together with the loss of 74,000 pounds in silver, copper, tin, lead, iron, haberdasher, glass millinery. Wedgwood horse tack, wine, beer, liquor and miltary stores. A contact was awarded to salavage the wreck in 1805 and the wreck was exploded in the early 1900 due to it being a shipping hazard