SS Irex

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SS Irex was a British sailing ship built in Port Glasgow by J. Reid & Co. for J.D. Clink of Greenock. It was a steel-hulled, three-masted full-rigged ship weighing 2,348 GRT, about 302 feet long and 43 feet wide. It was launched on 10 October 1889 and completed that December.

On 24 December 1889, Irex left Greenock for Rio de Janeiro, carrying 3,600 tons of iron sewerage pipes. Storms forced the ship to shelter in Belfast Lough until 1 January 1890. After leaving again, hurricane-strength winds pushed it north. The vessel tried to shelter in Falmouth on 24 January but could not get a pilot boat, so it continued up the English Channel toward Portland.

As Irex approached the Needles on the Isle of Wight, Captain Hutton mistook the Needles Lighthouse for a light from a pilot boat and drove the ship onto the shore at about 10 p.m. Large waves broke over the vessel. The captain, the first mate, the boatswain, and a crewman were killed.

The Totland lifeboat was alerted at 9 a.m. and the steam collier Hampshire joined the effort but could not reach Irex before noon. The lifeboat was nearly smashed and had to withdraw, later being towed back to port by Hampshire. At 1:15 p.m., a rocket from the coastguard fired a line to the ship, which caught in the rigging. As the crew tried to reach the line, one man fell and was killed. It took two hours to secure a hawser, allowing 29 survivors from a crew of 36 to be winched ashore by breeches buoy to the cliff-top. The wreck occurred at Scratchell’s Bay near The Needles.