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MV Creteblock - the concrete Ship
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The Yorkshire coastline is littered with history. You don’t need to walk along the beach for long before you come across something of significance, whether it is pillboxes from the war or, more recently, dinosaur fossils and such.
One thing of significance you may have come across before is the debris of a concrete ship, MV Creteblock shipwreck, that sits between Tate Hill Beach and Saltwick Bay.
The ship in question, MV Creteblock, is the wreck of a concrete ship built in Shoreham, West Sussex as part of an initiative in the First World War when metal and other materials were in short supply. The military vessel was a feat of engineering but never saw active service.
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The ship was purchased by Smith's Dock in Teesside where it was used as a harbour tug before being taken to Whitby in the 1930s. There it sat until 1947 when the decision was made to sink the ship by what is known as scuttling – where you sink a ship deliberately.
Whilst towing the MV Creteblock out to the North Sea to be scuttled it hit Whitby Scar in shallow water and the vessel broke up. To clear the ship they blew it up with dynamite, the result of which you can now find at low tide if you walk between Tate Hill beach and Saltwick Bay.
At low tide, the Mv Creteblock shipwreck appears, and you can see it from the top of the cliffs along with the Cleveland Way or pottering along the beach.
Tides change on a daily basis please check tide times before heading out to visit the wreck.
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