The Goodwin Sands, the Ship Swallower
A sandbank off Kent has claimed more than 2,000 ships, and a ghost ship is said to return every 50 years.
What was reported
The Goodwin Sands are a sandbank about 16 km long off the coast of Kent, in the busy Strait of Dover. At low tide parts of it lie dry and firm enough for people to have played cricket on it; at high tide it's hidden, and its shifting sands have wrecked more than 2,000 ships.
Legend says the Lady Lovibond, wrecked there on 13 February 1748, reappears as a ghost ship every 50 years. Another tale says the sands were once an island, swallowed by the sea.
Explanations offered
The danger is real: the sands move constantly with tides and storms, so charts soon go out of date, and lightships and buoys have marked them for centuries. There's no record of the Lady Lovibond in shipping registers, and the ghost ship is seen as a legend.
- When
- Wrecks over centuries
- Where
- Goodwin Sands, off Deal, Kent, England
- Witnesses
- Sailors, lifeboat crews and storytellers
- Status
- Explained
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.