Deerness has seen its fair shair of shipwrecks
By Allan Taylor
(Story dated September 2, 2004)

"Swedish sailor runs aground in thick fog"

So reads a headline report in The Orcadian, of August 19.

This incident was one of so many to take place along the coastline of Deerness. This parish has seen more than its share of shipwrecks over the past century or more, some with a happy ending, others ending sadly with loss of lives.

We have always been able to build new boats but not new lives.

Turning back the pages of my Coastguards’s Diary, we discover that an auxiliary coastguard section was established in Deerness in 1907 so let us look back 130 years to November 30, 1874.

About 1 am, the Liverpool brig Erin, of 235 tones, with a cargo of deals and battens was bound for her home port. A heavy sea had been running for many days when she struck the Skerry of Skaill and came ashore at Sandside. She was a total loss.

Lloyd’s agent, James Scarth, took charge of the salvage. Sadly, two lives were lost, the cook, a coloured gentleman, and the captain.

Another shipwreck of much acclaim, though smaller, was the wreck of the Aberdeen line-fish vessel Kilrenny, a wooden vessel of 96 tons, with an eight-man crew.

It was the last Saturday in February 1907 when she struck the Skerry of Skaill in blizzard conditions and a falling glass. The vessel had left Aberdeen and proceeded to Wick for bait, intending to start fishing off Copinsay.

With the glass so low, the skipper decided to run for Elwick Bay, in Shapinsay, for shelter but, with the north easterly wind increasing and the blizzard at its worst, she struck and started grinding to pieces on the jagged rocks.

This was a terrible experience for every man on board.

Assistance looked impossible from the shore, but the Deerness folk were quite alive to those in peril on the sea, leaving nothing undone to save their lives.

Accordingly, seven men set off in a yawl in the midst of the storm.

They were W. Foubister, Merchant; R. Foubister, New Grindigar; A. Foubister, Newbanks; J. Cumming, Lighthouse; two W. Kirknesses and a T. Kirkness; all from Grindigar.

Their task was found to be impossible as they could not find the Kilrenny in the blinding storm.

A wire was sent to Stromness asking for the lifeboat. So late on a Tuesday evening, the lifeboat launched, and rowed to the Aberdeen line-fisher Rothesay Bay, as she intended to tow the lifeboat to the scene of the wreck, a distance of some 30 miles.

She took onboard as a pilot Alexander Smith, from South End, Stromness.

On reaching Holm Sound they had to slow down, owing to heavy weather.

They reached the stranded vessel early on Wednesday morning and concluded there was no one left on board alive.

Shortly after, the message was sent from Deerness asking for lifeboat help, the weather cleared somewhat and another boat was manned with four men on board — D. Matches, Breckan; Irvine, Sandside; W. Firth, Creya; and John Taylor from Stove.

They managed to tranship the stricken crew as, by this time, the keel of their vessel had broken in two. They had to make two trips through broken water all around the skerry.

On Wednesday morning, the crew had a last look at their vessel as heavy seas broke over her and it was considered, the little craft would not last the night.

Therefore the crew were taken to Kirkwall in the charge of James Corsie, on behalf of the ship wrecked mariners society.

On March 18, 1907, HM Customs, Kirkwall, advised Mr D. Matches, Breckan that he, and the other three men who assisted saving the crew of the Kilrenny were each to receive a reward of £1 each, and to come to Kirkwall to collect it as soon as possible.

The following day a similar letter arrived for the Stromness branch of the Lifeboat service enclosing £1 each, for which they were asked to sign and return forms as soon as possible.

Such was the price of human life in 1907. On August 8, that same year, Mr D. Matches received from New Zealand a watch chain ornament of green stone set in gold in the shape of an anchor.

This was from a fellow Orcadian Isabell C. Flett and was for risking his own life to save others.