Review of The Earl of Abergavenny. Historical Record and Wreck Excavation CD-Rom

In early February 1805 a small fleet of East Indiamen accompanied by the frigate Weymouth set sail from Portsmouth heading first for Bengal and ultimately for China. However, barely had the voyage began when, following bad weather and confusion, one of the boats, the Earl of Abergavenny, struck the Shambles bank just off Portland Bill. Although the crew managed to free it, it was so badly damaged it sank while trying to make for the safety of Weymouth. Over 250 crew and passengers drowned. The wreck has until now been best known for causing the death of John Wordsworth, the ship's commander and brother of the poet William Wordsworth. This excellent CD report of archaeological investigations on the wreck site carried out since 1980 by the Weymouth Underwater Archaeological Group (WUAG) brings us the full picture of the events leading up to the wreck, and a record of the remains found by the team of divers (Fig.1). The complex campaigns of diving have been carried out alongside extensive documentary and historical work. The huge amount of data created by this project has inevitably led to challenges for the WUAG regarding its publication (Cumming 2002). The decision to publish via a CD-ROM has allowed very large quantities of data and discussion to be published. The current version of the CD contains over 100,000 words of text, 1560 files and over 1000 illustrations (JPEGS). All for the grand price of 10 GBP. The volume can be browsed using a commercially available browser but is also supplied as compiled file using Web Compiler, which has the advantage of a search facility.