Wreck of the Transport
'Venus'
(The Transport 'Venus' left Portsmouth
15th Nov. 1795, for the West-Indies.
On the 18th, the Venus was wrecked in a storm off Portland Beach.)
Memorials at Wyke church, near Weymouth
:
"To the Memory
Of Captain Ambrose William Barcroft
Lieutenant Harry Ash, & Mr. Kelly, Surgeon
of the 63d Regiment of Infantry;
Of Lieutenant Stephen
Jenner,
of the 6th West-India Regiment;
Lieutenant Stains,
of the Lieutenant West-India Regiment;
Lieutenant James
Sutherland,
of Col. Whyte's West-India Regiment;
Lieutenant B. Chadwick,
of Col. Whyte's West-India Regiment;
Cornet Wm. Stukeley
Burns,
of the 26th Light Dragoons;
Cornet Benjamin
Graydon,
Of the 3rd West-India Regiment;
Two Hundred and
Fifteen Soldiers and Seamen,
and Nine Women who perished by Shipwreck on Portland Beach,
Opposite the Villages of Langton, Fleet, and Chickerell,
on Wednesday the Eighteenth Day, of November 1795."
-------------------
"Sacred to
the Memory
Of Major John Charles
Ker,
Military Commandant of Hospitals in the
Leeward Islands;
And to that Of his
son,
Lieutenant James Ker
of the 40th Regiment of Foot,
Who both departed
this Life on the Eighteenth of November, I795
The first aged 40, and the latter 14 Years.
The fate of both
was truly deplorable; and is a melancholy example of the uncertainty
of human affairs. They were embarked in the Venus Transport, and
left Portsmouth the 15th of the above-mentioned month, with a
fleet full of troops, destined on an expedition to the West-Indies,
under the command of General Sir Ralph Abercromby. A storm having
arisen on the 17th, Which lasted till the next day, many of the
ships were lost, and the Venus wrecked on Portland Beach; Major
Ker and his Son were both unfortunately drowned, with the greater
part of the soldiers and crew. The Major's body could not be found,
although it is possible that it may have been among the many others
which were driven ashore, and buried in this churchyard. His son's
corpse was ascertained, and lies interred under this stone, which
is raised at the expense of John William Ker, Esq. brother of
the Major, in commemoration of the affection he bore him."
