The wreck of the Deutschland

One of the worst shipping disasters ever to occur off the coast of britain is remembered today not so much because of the tragedy and the mysteries surrounding it, but because it inspired the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins to write his great ode, "The wreck of the Deutschland". More than a hundred years later the brief details given in the poem, combineed with the poet's strong religious fervour, still have power to move and intrigue us.