Kentish Knock (England)

The Kentish Knock is a shoal (shallow area of the sea bed) in the North Sea, east of the Thames Estuary in southeast England.

Ecology

An area of sand and gravel, the Kentish Knock is home to hermit crabs, sand goby fish, rays and catsharks. Channels in the sediment are believed to have been caused by glacial floodwaters several millennia ago. Since 2012, The Wildlife Trusts have been campaigning for recognition of a 96 km² section of the Knock, known as Kentish Knock East, as a Marine Conservation Zone.^[1]

Maritime history

• 1652 - Battle of the Kentish Knock
• 1820 - First reliable mapping of Kentish Knock by triangulation from Essex, by Thomas^[2]
• 1822 - Wreck of the Juliana East Indiaman^[3]
• 1824 - Buoy placed on the east side of the Knock^[4]
• 1836 - The Nancy ran aground on the Knock, broke up, and was washed up at Margate.^[5]
• 1840 - Buoy replaced by a light vessel,^[6] the LV Kentish Knock
• 1860 - Wreck of the Dutch galliott Hillechina^[7]
• 1875 - Wreck of the SS Deutschland^[8]
• 1892 - Wreck of the steamer Dilsberg, of Glasgow^[9]
• 1894 - Telephone cable laid from mainland to light vessel^[10][11]
• 1916 - Crash of the German Zeppelin L15^[12][13]
• 1917 - Probable destruction of the German U-boat SM UC-6, either by mine nets or by British seaplane 8676^[14]
• 1949 to 1953 - Trinity House light vessel No.8 stationed here^[15]
• 1953 to 1955 - Trinity House light vessel No.14 stationed here^[16][17]
• 1959 and 1963 - A different light vessel was stationed here^[18][19]
• 1963 to 1966 - Trinity House Lightvessel No. 20 stationed here^[20]
• 1974 to 1975 - Trinity House lightvessel No. 23 stationed here^[21]
• 1984 to 1991 - Trinity House Lightvessel No. 3 stationed here^[22]
• 2011 - By this date only a lighted buoy remained^[23]
• 2014 - Phase 2 of the London Array wind farm was reported to have been cancelled because of concerns over the safety of red-throated divers^[24]

See also

• Carnarvon Basin, Australia, where Kentish Knock South-1 is an exploratory oil well in the Mungaroo Sands.^[25]

References

1. Kentish Knock East recommended Marine Conservation Zone, Wildlife Trusts, accessed 2014-04-19
2. Robinson, A H W, Marine cartography in Britain: a history of the sea chart to 1855, Leicester University Press, 1962, accessed on Google Books 2014-04-20
3. The Gentleman's Magazine, Jan. 1822, accessed on Google Books 2012-04-20
4. Purdy, John, The Brasilian navigator; or, Sailing directory for all the coasts of Brasil, to accompany Laurie's new general chart, Volume 1, Oxford University, 1838, accessed on Google Books 2014-04-19
5. The Christian's Penny Magazine No. 214, July 9, 1836, accessed on Google Books 2014-04-20
6. "Notice to mariners: light at the Kentish Knock", London Gazette, 14 July 1840, accessed 2014-04-19
7. The Shipwrecked Mariner, Vol. VII, 1860, pub. George Morrish, London, accessed on Google Books 2014-04-20
8. The Wreck of the ‘Deutschland’, English Heritage, accessed 2014-04-19
9. Essex Review, Volumes 1-3, E. Durant and Company, 1892, accessed on Google Books 2014-04-20
10. The Electrical Review, Volume 41, pub. H. Alabaster, Gatehouse & Company, 1897, accessed at Google Books 2014-04-20
11. "Telephonic Communication with Lightships", The Electrician, Volume 31, pub. James Gray, 4 August 1893, [accessed on Google Books] 2014-04-20
12. "The Dying Gasbag L15", The War Illustrated Deluxe, 1916, details seen on eBay 2014-04-19
13. "Sir Charles Wakefield Medal - Zeppelin L15", The First World War Poetry Digital Archive, accessed 2014-04-19
14. Dwight R. Messimer, Verschollen: World War I U-boat Losses, Naval Institute Press, 2002, accessed on Google Books 2014-04-19
15. "Trinity House lightvessel no. 8", World Lightships, accessed 2014-04-19
16. Goleulong 2000 Lightship, accessed 2014-04-19
17. "Trinity House Lightvessel No. 14", World Lightships, accessed 2014-04-19
18. Christmas For the Men of the Kentish Knock and Sunk Lightships http://www.eafa.org.uk/catalogue/212259 (1959), East Anglian Film Archive, accessed 2014-04-19
19. Kentish Knock (1963); Service vessel; Light vessel, Royal Museums Greenwich, accessed 2014-04-19
20. "Trinity House Lightvessel No. 20", World Lightships, accessed 2014-04-19
21. "Trinity House Lightvessel No. 23", World Lightships, accessed 2014-04-19
22. "Trinity House Lightvessel No. 3", World Lightships, accessed 2014-04-19
23. 13/2011 C4 Kentish Knock Lighted Buoy, Trinity House, accessed 2014-04-19
24. "£1bn windfarm scrapped because of red-throated divers", ITV, accessed 2014-04-19
25. Chevron finds gas at Kentish Knock South-1 well, offshoretechnology.com, accessed 2014-04-19

Coordinates: 51°40′00″N 01°37′00″E / 51.66667°N 1.61667°E