The painting above shows the Eureka entering the river Dart with her aft mast starting to break and sails collapsing after clipping the mewstone.  The right hand painting is of the Eureka sinking after taking in water and eventually ending up on the cliff in the background.
The Eureka was a Brigantine of 241 tons. She was built by De la Mare at the Piette  in Gurnsey  in 1869. At less than a year old, the Eureka left Tyne on 24th January 1870 with a cargo of coal on route to Torquay in South Devon. Just off Portland , on her way to Torquay a south easterly gale combined with a freak wave caused the ship to heal over and her cargo to shift giving here a permanent list. Her master , Tim Please from Guernsey decided to ride it out and head for Dartmouth to load provisions.
At 9 pm on the 6th February 1870 , in a severe SE storm the Eureka hit the mewstone on its was into Dartmouth and then drifted onto the rocks north of the dart entrance. Three of the nine man crew drowned but her master, Tim Please survived.

She was discovered in 1971 by Tony Elmer and Neville Oldham.

Select the image below to see a photo of the Eureka at Deane Photographic Archives