A shipwreck which killed dozens of crew members left the residents of a town devastated. On January 26, 1800, the HMS Brazen wrecked, resulting in the loss of all but one of its 120 crew members. The whole town was ready to rescue any survivors - but bodies quickly started to pile up.
As Jeremiah Hill floated towards the shore clutching some broken timbers, he probably realised he was one of the lucky ones. But he was the only lucky one to survive the wreck of the HMS Brazen, a patrol boat assigned to protect the Sussex coast from French privateers. Just three months after it had been commissioned, the sloop was wrecked just west of Newhaven.
In the early hours of January 26, 1800, the Brazen’s crew of 120 was reduced to just one. “The wreck, when it was discovered, about seven in the morning, exhibited a most melancholy and distressing scene,” the Naval Chronicle reported at the time. “Many of the crew who had got onto rafts, and on different parts of the ship, were seen struggling with the contending billows.
“The lieutenant and purser, who were excellent swimmers, stripped and attempted to save themselves by that means. “But having swam until they were exhausted, they sunk and were seen no more.” The Brazen had been assigned to protect the coastline between the Isle of Wight and Beachy Head after privateers had been harassing fishermen.
Weeks after the boat was commissioned in October 1799, Brighton’s naval defence commander Captain Andrew Sproule had warne.
