Shipwrecks

The entrance to Stronsay Harbour, especially the skerry known as Jack's Reef, could be a treacherous place for ships, and between 1881 and 1915 (in addition to the 7 steamers and drifters, mentioned on the interpretation board, that went aground on the same day in 1906),  8 other significant wrecks or strandings have been noted: the North Star, the Orcadia,  the Look Sharp, the Palestine, the Rose, the Enterprise, the Clestron and the Marco Polo (pictured below).

The North Star

On 7 April 1881, the schooner North Star (Leith) carrying a cargo of salt from Liverpool went ashore on Jack’s Reef. Although the crew threw around 30 tons of her cargo over the side, she was still stuck fast, and it was feared she would become a total wreck. Fortunately, with good weather prevailing and more of her cargo being jettisoned, she was got off with remarkably little damage on the 11th of that same month.

The Orcadia

Even ships and masters well used to the waters around the isles could occasionally get things wrong, and the steamship Orcadia was no exception. Owned by the Orkney Steam Navigation Company, she was the second of the company’s ships to bear that name and ran a regular scheduled passenger and cargo service around the North Isles of Orkney from 1868 to 1931 – an impressive sixty-three years in total! There are three records of her taking bottom on the Stronsay approaches in the 1880s, the first of which was when returning to Stronsay following a Volunteer Review in Kirkwall on 6 July 1884. Entering Papa Sound with about 150 passengers aboard the Orcadia ran aground on  Jack’s Reef. The weather was reasonably calm, and a number of boats returning from herring fishing were able to come alongside and take the passengers off, landing them safely at Stronsay. The Orcadia got off safely with the next high tide and was apparently little the worse for her grounding.

In January 1888, the Orcadia , under the command of the experienced Captain Bremner, was leaving Stronsay bound for Kirkwall in a northerly gale when she was driven ashore just below the leading lights in Papa Sound. Captain Robertson and the steamer Express from Kirkwall were summoned to her aid, but the Orcadia got off safely before her would-be rescuers reached the scene. The bottom there was sandy, and no damage was done to the Orcadia, though it was commented that she had found bottom on exactly the same spot some months previously.

The Look Sharp

During a severe gale on the 25 and 26 January 1893, a number of boats sought shelter in Orkney harbours – ten boats took refuge in Kirkwall, four boats at Sanday, and eleven boats at Stronsay. One of the boats entering the harbour at Stronsay, the Look Sharp of Buckie, went ashore on Jack's Reef, but with no more record of her, it seems she got off safely when conditions allowed.

The Banff-registered Palestine ran aground on Jack's Reef on 12 April 1898 and quickly filled with water. On seeing her plight, a number of fishermen from the Station at the lower end of the village manned a boat and went to the rescue, where they managed to take all the crew off safely. Exactly a week later, after unloading all her ballast, she was towed off the reef by the SS Metis from Kirkwall and taken safely into the harbour for repair.

The Palestine

The Banff-registered Palestine, a  Zulu sail drifter, missed stays and ran aground on Jack’s Reef on 12 April 1898, where she quickly filled with water. On seeing her plight, a number of fishermen from the Station at the lower end of the village manned a boat and went to the rescue, managing to take all the crew off safely. Exactly a week later, after unloading all her ballast, she was towed off the reef by the SS Metis from Kirkwall and taken safely into the harbour for repair.

The Rose

Jack’s Reef halted the passage of yet another ship when the Kirkwall smack Rose, heading to Papa Sound with a cargo of coal from Bridgeness, near Linlithgow, stranded there during a strong westerly gale on 1 August 1899. She was lying in a sheltered location and was refloated at high water the following day with no apparent damage.

 

The Enterprise

On 14 June 1909, while making her way out of Papa Sound, bound for the fishing grounds, the steam drifter Enterprise, of Buckie, was manoeuvring to go alongside one of the coal hulks to fill up her bunkers when she ran aground on Jack’s Reef. The cook, Kenneth Morrison from Stornoway, had gone to the engine room when, with the swaying of the drifter as she attempted to get off the skerry, he lost his footing and fell into the engine. Fortunately, the engineer witnessed the accident and was able to immediately shut off steam and stop the engine or no doubt Mr Morrison would have lost his life. As it was, he sustained a compound fracture of the left leg and suffered multiple bruises. He was taken to Balfour Hospital in Kirkwall.

The Clestron

On 28 January 1913, the Kirkwall-registered Clestron was moored alongside the coal hulk Ailsa Craig, anchored in Papa Sound. During the early hours of 29 January, a gale blew up and caused her to break her moorings. The crew managed to hoist a staysail, which enabled them to avoid the nearby skerry of Jack’s Reef, but with the gale raging and little control over the boat, they had no option but to drift before the wind until the boat took shore at Huip Ness.

The Orcadia

The Marco Polo

On 6 December 1915, the Oslo-based Marco Polo (pictured below) encountered a south-easterly gale accompanied by thick fog, and after some time feeling her way slowly through the fog, the realisation came that she was in a dangerous position. She immediately dropped anchor, but despite paying out 125 fathoms of anchor chain, the anchor failed to hold her, and she drove hard aground in a geo near the rocks of Jack’s Reef A local boat manned by some of the now redundant lifeboat crew members was soon alongside to help. But with a heavy swell running, the foremast soon went over the side, followed not long after by the mainmast, and it became apparent that, with the hull also now extensively damaged and hammering on the rocks, nothing could be done to save the vessel. Captain Erikson and the remainder of the crew then also abandoned ship, re-joining the rest of the crew in Whitehall Village.

All the crew, twenty in number, made their way to Kirkwall very soon after, where Captain Erikson handed over his ship to the Receiver of Wrecks. Although it was quickly decided that there was no hope of salvaging the Marco Polo, it seems that she lay where she struck for some considerable time afterwards, enabling much of her cargo, sails, ropes and fittings to be salvaged.

The geo at the Huip Ness where the ship went ashore has been called the Marco Polo Geo ever since.

The Marco Polo

The excerpts above (somewhat adapted) were taken from the book written by Stronsay native Ian Cooper about the many shipwrecks around Stronsay. It can be purchased in the Heritage Centre and in the Fish Mart Cafe for £15 (all proceeds go to support the Stronsay Heritage Centre).

2024 drone photo taken by Ian Cooper of coal hulk (the ACW11) in the Bay of Franks.

By the end of the Great War, steel was in short supply, and alternatives to steel for shipbuilding were being sought where possible. This process of steel-reinforced concrete, or ferro-concrete, was still very much in the experimental stage in 1918, but it is testimony to this process and the skill of the builders that the ACW11  is still pretty much intact over a hundred years later. On 22 February 1936 the coal hulk  broke free of her moorings during a gale and ran hard aground in the Bay of Franks. Unfortunately, she was badly holed on a large rock and couldn’t be re-floated, so she still sits today where she ran aground more than eighty years ago.