For more than half a century there has been a slowly diminishing wreck at Compton Bay, which has intrigued me since the early sixties. Its history was unknown to me until recently when I found the following reference at Divernet.com

"The Carbon is at 50 39.20N; 01 28.10W in Compton Bay. The tug, originally called the John Hollway, was bought by the Royal Navy in 1900. She was 72ft long with a beam of 17ft and, at the end of her long career with the Navy, she was under tow south of the Isle of Wight when, in the early hours of 10 November, 1947, the tow parted in heavy weather and the unmanned tug was lost in the darkness. She was found aground and full of water in the shallows, but an attempt to refloat her the following day failed and she was abandoned. Storm seas soon demolished her wooden superstructure, but parts of the vessel can still be seen at low water."