Despite an ongoing gale with force 10 winds, she departed Weymouth on 14 December 1979 and sank under mysterious circumstances off the coast of nearby Lulworth Cove, with the loss of all four on board.
[2] The body of Buths was never recovered, although authorities reported that the discovery of a leg bone in a tracksuit, found wrapped around a lobster pot off Swanage by fishermen on 26 July 1982, possibly belonged to her.
[7][3] On 11 July 1980, a fisherman recovered the Thornycroft engine, still attached to part of the hull, in his trawl net off White Nothe, about half a mile away from the wreck's position.
[2][3] Between February and June 1980, Richard Farwell of the Dorset Sub-Aqua Club, and Dave Mountjoy, Neil Rowley and John Ray of Weymouth and Portland BSAC) worked together to locate the wreck.
[3] Upon its discovery, the East Dorset coroner, Nigel Neville-Jones, suggested the wreck could be raised for examination, with a possible reopening of the inquest,[8] but this was not carried out due to costs.
A spokesman for A. H. Moody & Son Ltd., upon seeing photographs of the wreck, stated that it was not a "natural boating accident" but "pretty obvious[ly] caused by an external force of some kind".