SS Irex
Encyclopedia
SS Irex was a steel built sailing ship, wrecked at Scratchell's Bay on the Isle of Wight
by The Needles
on 25 January 1890. She was on her maiden voyage and her skipper, Captain Hutton, had mistaken the Needles lighthouse for mooring lights. During an epic rescue the Totland lifeboat controversially turned back due to the appalling conditions--resulting in the coxswain and his family being driven from their community. Eventually the rescue was effected using rocket lines fired from the cliffs. Captain Hutton and the mate were drowned.
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...
by The Needles
The Needles
The Needles is a row of three distinctive stacks of chalk that rise out of the sea off the western extremity of the Isle of Wight, England, close to Alum Bay. The Needles lighthouse stands at the end of the formation...
on 25 January 1890. She was on her maiden voyage and her skipper, Captain Hutton, had mistaken the Needles lighthouse for mooring lights. During an epic rescue the Totland lifeboat controversially turned back due to the appalling conditions--resulting in the coxswain and his family being driven from their community. Eventually the rescue was effected using rocket lines fired from the cliffs. Captain Hutton and the mate were drowned.