Archaeology Notes

Event ID 839396

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/839396

NJ90NE 8188 c. 95 05

N57 8 W2 5

NLO: Aberdeen [name: NJ 95 05]

Torry [name: NJ 951 051].

Possibly on map sheets or NJ90SW.

5 April 1876, ABERDEEN FERRY BOAT, Owner Alexander Kennedy, Tacksman, Aberdeen, capsized while crossing the River Dee, between Aberdeen and the village of Torry, 32 lives lost, partial loss, due to overcrowding of boat with passengers. A prominent cause of the disaster was an obstruction in the rollers underneath the fly-wheel, caused by an ill-made splice in the wire rope, by means of which the boat was worked. Inquiry held at Aberdeen.

Table 46: Statement of Official Inquiries in the United Kingdom into the Causes of Wrecks, Casualties, and Collisions, ordered by the Board of Trade during the Year 1875-6.

Source: PP Abstracts Returns of Wrecks and Casualties on Coasts of the UK 1875 - 76 (1876 [C.1632] LXVII.191).

NMRS, MS/829/69 (no. 2664).

The precise location of this incident is unclear but it presumably occurred within the area of Aberdeen Harbour.

The River Dee enters the North Sea through Aberdeen Harbour (NJ90NE 7.00), which is centred at NJ 95 05. The present entrance may be considered to lie at NJ c. 963 060, but this location reflects development towards the East through the construction of successive piers and breakwaters.

The loss of this vessel is not cited by I G Whittaker (1998), presumably on grounds of her subsequent recovery.

Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 6 May 2004.