I recently came across a pile of aerial photographs I bought as a job lot years ago, all taken around our locality. One that stuck out was the picture above, of a wrecked tanker. It was marked "Tanker at Nash - 1956".
Curious to find out what had happened, I eventually found information regarding wrecks in the Bristol Channel. There were none in '56. But I found a small amount of information regarding the BP Explorer.
"In Feb. 1961 she capsized and was lost with all hands while on passage from Swansea to Sharpness, she was discovered the next day by the old Severn Railway Bridge. The BP Explorer was salvaged and rebuilt as the BP Driver and in Jan 1962, in severe weather she too was wrecked on Nash Point, this time, thankfully, no lives were lost."
So this could be the BP Driver, there is no other mention of a tanker wreck off Nash Point that I can find. She didn't have much luck.
Click on the smaller picture above to see some detail, and you will see a lifeboat remaining on the deck. I assume that there was a second lifeboat used to save the crew. The open wooden boat isn't the sort of thing I'd like to be climbing into in a storm, but then again if your mothership is on the way down you make your choice.
