Discomania on Brewster beach













The Napoli with its load of containers, beached off the East Devon coast

Weird stuff often ends up on beaches.

Flotsam from the wreck of the Napoli at Branscombe, just a few miles east of Budleigh Salterton caught public attention when the UK-flagged container ship was beached off the coast in 2007 after it had split open. Scavengers from all over Britain descended on the area intent on carrying off BMW motorbikes, nappies and, shamefully, people's personal possessions which had been washed ashore.











It took two years for the wreck to be disposed of by the authorities. The floating crane and tugs were still operating on it when I took this photo at Sidmouth in 2009.

Our starfish invasion a year or so ago hit international headlines as I reported at http://budleighbrewsterunited.blogspot.com/2010/03/starring-role-for-budleigh_4295.html
















Alien visitors to a Brewster beach

Truly bizarre is the story reported by the Department of Natural Resources in Budleigh Salterton's sister-town of Brewster of the millions of small plastic discs washed up along the coast last month. Brewster resident Kevin Aring found fame in the Massachusetts media for his diligence in collecting 5,000 of them. Once he started he couldn't stop, as he explained in a YouTube clip at http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110401/NEWS/104010317/-1/news

The discs were used by a wastewater treatment facility in Hooksett, New Hampshire and were released into the Merrimack River after heavy rain, finding their way on to the shorelines of Maine and Massachusetts. It was reported that between four million and eight million disks - that seems quite a big difference to me - along with 250,000 gallons of partially treated wastewater were released from the town-owned plant.

The Department of Natural Resources warned people that the discs could have some bacteria remaining on them, so it was recommended to not touch them with bare hands.

On Monday 28 March a beach clean-up organised by the Department removed more than 6,300 of them. By Wednesday, more than 20,000 had been recovered from Brewster beaches. Volunteers were continuing to work at removing them.

Comments

  1. Harry13 April 2011 at 16:31

    Hi there. Found your blog on a search of the Hooksett disks. Trying to see from week to week how far they've traveled. (I live in Maine, just north of New Hampshire, and often comb the local beach looking for flotsam.) Actually, by summer, some of them that got caught in the Gulf Stream might be washing up along shores in Devon & Cornwall. The ocean divides as well as unites!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

People from the Past: 3. Reg Varney (1916-2008)

Image
Reginald Alfred 'Reg' Varney was an English actor, most notable for his role as a cheerful Cockney bus driver in the 1970s TV sitcom On the Buses . For ten years he lived at Dark Lane House on picturesque Dark Lane in Budleigh Salterton, seen above.  Millions of television viewers remember him with affection. He has been described as belonging to the old school of comedians, with his dislike of much contemporary television and his pride in never using swear words to get a laugh. Varney was born on 11 July 1916 in Canning Town, which was then part of Essex but is now part of East London. His father worked in a rubber factory in Silvertown and he was one of five children who grew up in Addington Road, Canning Town. He was educated at the nearby Star Lane Primary School in West Ham and after leaving school at 14, he worked as a messenger boy at the Regent Palace Hotel, pictured above.  
Read more

WW2 100 – 3 July 1941 – ‘Our beloved son’: Private Stanley John Holloway (1914-41) 12th Battalion, Devonshire Regiment

Image
Continued from 11 June 1941 ‘A German platoon fired a salute of honour over the grave’ FLYING OFFICER PETER HAROLD HOWARD PRITCHARD (1921-41)   https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2021/11/ww2-75-11-june-1941-german-platoon.html   Image credit: www.FindaGrave.com Stanley’s sad death at the age of 27 stirred various thoughts in me when I first read about it. He is not listed on Budleigh Salterton’s War Memorial, yet his grave is in St Peter’s Burial Ground on Moor Lane. His family were not local, yet he seems to have been killed while engaged in the highly hazardous work of protecting Budleigh against invasion.   The Commonwealth War Graves Commission records him as a member of the 12 th Battalion, Devonshire Regiment with the Service Number was 5627659. According to the same source, his parents were George and M. Holloway, of Hounslow, Middlesex.   Tackling this WW2 project chronologically as I am, it was clear that Stanley had died on the same day as Private Clifto
Read more

WW2 100 – 23 January 1945 – A tragic accident in Burma: Captain Gerald Arthur Richards (1909-45), Royal Army Medical Corps

Image
Continued from 21 January 1945 FLIGHT SERGEANT RENNIE ARTHUR LOADER (1915-45) Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (RAFVR), 518 Squadron https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2021/04/ww2-75-21-january-1945-forecasting-for.html         A photo of Gerald Arthur Richards sent to me by his daughter Louanne   Like a number of war dead whose names are not listed on Budleigh’s War Memorial,  Gerald Arthur Richards is mentioned by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) as having a link with the town through his wife Kirstine. It was difficult to confirm that link, but there were enough intriguing aspects to Gerald’s story to raise questions that I wanted to see answered. Further research led to more East Devon links – to Honiton, Exmouth and further afield. In a very roundabout way I finally made contact with his daughter Louanne, to whom I am grateful for providing information about the family, not least some family photos like the one above. Gerry, as he was kno
Read more