there was a flourishing fleet there. This was disbanded when the pilchards came no more. Today just a handful of local fishermen take their boats out, mainly for crabs and lobsters, for which the village is famous. They are greatly relished by visitors and locals (especially by my wife’s uncle who always treats his wife to a fine local lobster on her birthday!). In the 1750’s Jeremiah mills, a future Dean of exeter recorded that upwards of 20,000 mackerel were taken in one draught by a boat fishing not far from the shore.
There have been many ships wrecked on the rocks
at Hope Cove and the adjacent coastline. In 1760 more than 700 people lost their lives when the Hms ramilles was wrecked upon the rocks at the base of bolt Tail. Another famous wreck was that of the Finnish barque, Herzogin Cecilie. The 334 foot four-masted training ship ran aground on the Ham stone on the 25th April 1936. Going back even further, one of the ships of the spanish Armada, st peter the Great was wrecked on the shippen rock in 1588. A number of ancient buildings in the south