Chesil Beach cannon

The site was discovered in 2010 by the Shipwrecks Project. The sites were investigated by Wessex Archaeology in 2015; this involved a programme of diving surveys.

A number of archaeological finds of similar dates have been identified near the sites since the 1970s including a large plug of tobacco found below a cannon up to 500m to the northwest of the sites. Shot, a brass barrel spigot, and some silver Dutch coins have also been found in the vicinity of the sites.^[1]

Neither of the sites have been attributed to a specific wreck, however, there are some contenders for possible identities. The Dutch West Indiaman De Hoop became stranded at Chesil Cove in 1749 while travelling from Jamaica to Amsterdam carrying gold and silver coins, textiles, and tobacco. She was described as armed. Another possible identity is Squirrel which was a cargo vessel stranded on Chesil Beach in 1750 carrying tobacco. These ships may be represented by the Chesil Beach sites; however, they date to considerably later than the believed date of the cannon at the sites, and there is currently no archaeological evidence to confirm the identities of either of the wrecks.^[1]