Goodwin Sands

Goodwin Sands is a long sandbank in the southern North Sea, lying ten kilometres off Deal in Kent. The shifting shoals stretch for sixteen kilometres and rest on a chalk platform that also underlies the White Cliffs of Dover. Their depth varies from half a metre above low water to twenty metres in one deep channel, so tides and currents are always moving the sand. The area between the sands and the coast is called The Downs, a safe anchorage used by ships in bad weather. More than two thousand vessels have been wrecked on the Goodwins because they lie across major shipping lanes. The sands have claimed famous ships such as HMS Stirling Castle in 1703 and the Dutch VOC ship Rooswijk in 1740. Naval battles were fought nearby in 1602, 1652 and 1917, and the South Goodwin Lightship broke free in 1954 during a hurricane-force storm. Five lightships once marked the edges, and the wreck of one still appears at low tide near the eastern end. The last remaining lightship, East Goodwin, continues to warn passing vessels today. Visitors can see the North Foreland lighthouse, still in operation, and the decommissioned South Foreland Upper lighthouse owned by the National Trust. The chalk cliffs of South Foreland once worked with a lower light to show when ships reached the sandbank’s southern edge. The shifting sands have left only the North Foreland tower standing on the mainland, while the Goodwin Sands themselves remain a constantly changing hazard in the busy strait.