From its vantage point opposite the Needles, Hurst Castle is no stranger to shipwrecks, many of them off the Needles, barely 1.5km across the Solent. Among them was the SS Varvassi, which went down in January 1947.

The 3,875-ton steam-powered freighter, built by the Northumberland Shipbuilding Company, was launched at Howdon-on-Tyne in November 1914. Originally christened Bronze Wings, she was renamed Noelle, then Lady Charlotte, before Greek ownership brought a change of style to Moscha D Kydoniefs, under which name the ship did convoy duty between Europe and North America during World War II. Her final name change, to Varvassi, came only in 1946.

As they boarded the Varvassi at Annaba in Algiers, the largely Greek and South American crew had no indication that this would be different to any other sea-going job: a standard haul from the Mediterranean to the English Channel. Tucked down in the hold was a heady cargo of tangerines and wine, bound for Southampton, plus a load of iron ore en route to Boulogne. Also on board was a small herd of heifers to provide meat for the journey, while some of the crew had brought pets – cats and canaries – to keep them company on the voyage.

It seems to have been an uneventful crossing until, on Saturday 4 January, Captain Coufopandelis stopped the engines near the Needles in order to pick up a pilot to guide him through the Solent. In a stroke of bad luck, the engines failed to restart, and as the vessel drifted out of control on the rising tide, it wasn’t long before she hit the rocks and became wedged fast.

A Trinity House pilot was immediately taken on board but, hoping that his ship could be refloated on the next tide, the captain declined the offer of help from Yarmouth lifeboat. Instead, a tug from Southampton, the Calshot, attempted to pull the Varvassi clear of the rocks. As the weather deteriorated, with rough seas and increasingly poor visibility, the ship’s bottom began to grind on the rocks, yet still the Calshot tried to refloat her, and the lifeboat was again turned away.

By the following morning it was clear that the vessel was beyond help, and the order was given to abandon ship. With the lifeboat now back on the scene for the third time, all 35 members of the crew, plus the captain and the pilot, were rescued and taken safely to Yarmouth. Some, however, returned to the ship the following day to feed the cattle and try to salvage what they could, but the weather wasn’t on their side. The animals were slaughtered; almost everything else went down with the ship.

For sailors in 1947, huge barrels of wine bobbing around in the sea added an unusual hazard to Solent navigation, as did heavy baulks of timber later in the year as the Varvassi began to break up. Beachcombers, though, revelled in the unexpected bounty – though the tangerines were said to be past their best.

Today, 75 years later, parts of the ship still lie in shallow waters about 150m west of the Needles lighthouse, her boilers occasionally breaking the surface at low tide: an ongoing hazard to shipping and a constant lure for divers.