The Norfolk coast has always been treacherous for seafarers, and Happisburgh Sand, nine miles long and seven miles offshore, has been disastrous for hundreds of vessels and claimed countless lives.
Of the many ships lost, the names of few have been remembered, but among them is HMS Peggy, a 141 ton sloop. In December 1770 she took on board newly conscripted press men (those conscripted by press gangs) at Newcastle. Two days later, as she sailed along the Norfolk coast, the wind changed as darkness fell, and amid squalls of snow she was driven towards the shore, eventually grounding near Town Gap. Waves beat over her, and it was not until low tide that villagers could bring wagons along the beach to take 59 survivors to safety and shelter. 32 of the crew perished and were buried in Happisburgh churchyard. When a brig was sent from Yarmouth to pick up the survivors, 14 of the press men armed themselves with clubs and refused to embark. The Captain had no means of forcing them to obey, and had no option but to let them go home rejoicing.
The most famous loss was HMS Invincible, a Third Rate 74 gun, who sailed out of Yarmouth in March 1801 to join the Baltic Fleet under Admiral Sir Hyde Parker, with Lord Nelson Second in Command, shortly before the Battle of Copenhagen. A strong tide and fresh wind forced her off course, and she struck Hammonds Knoll, a sandbank just east of Happisburgh Sand. The crew laboured all night to save her, cutting away the masts and pumping continuously, but at daybreak on 17th March she went down.
A smack fishing for cod rescued some of the crew, but out of 590 men, some 400 perished, including her Captain - the last to leave his ship. During the next few days many bodies were washed ashore, and at Happisburgh, cart loads were gathered up and taken to a mass grave in the churchyard. The loss of lives from HMS Invincible was greater than the casualties at the Battle Copenhagen.
For many years no memorial marked the place, but on 24th July 1998 a simple stone given jointly by the Ship's Company of the present HMS Invincible and the Parochial Church Council was dedicated to the memory of all from the earlier Invincible who died at sea.
The seabed off Happisburgh became so littered with wrecked vessels that in 1904 Trinity House, fearing more disasters, sent a team of divers to blow them up. Thanks to improved navigational equipment few ships come to grief off these shores today.
