Archaeology Notes

Event ID 698733

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/698733

NK03SE 8001 0866 3345

N57 23.5 W1 51.3

NLO: Peterhead [name: NK 135 465]

Cruden Bay [name: NK 091 364]

Bay of Cruden [name centred NK 090 348]

The Skares [name centred NK 089 331].

Hopes of saving a Dutch coaster trapped on rocks south of Peterhead dwindled last night as huge seas pounded the stricken vessel. The five man crew of the coaster Maria W were rescued by Peterhead lifeboat after their vessel ran aground in thick fog on the treacherous Scaurs of Cruden, near Whinnyfold early yesterday. The owner of the vessel, Mr.J.P.Weber (47) and his son J.P.Weber Jnr. (25) who is captain of the boat, watched grim-faced from the clifftop of Whinnyfold yesterday afternoon as the sea covered most of the Maria W.

The 240 ton vessel was on her way from Ghent to Scrabster, Caithness, with a cargo of fertiliser when trouble struck at 3.30 am.

While her young captain remained on board sending out distress signals, the rest of the crew took to the life-raft. The Grimsby-based trawler Real Madrid sailed to the area, and using radar, guided the Peterhead lifeboat. All five seamen were hauled safely on board the lifeboat and taken to Peterhead. Visibility was nil. The skipper sent out a Mayday signal and put up rockets. The lifeboat succeeded in getting right up to the Maria W, despite the rocks.

(Page 1 - photo of Maria W aground and being pounded by the sea).

Source: Aberdeen Press and Journal, 23 February 1966.

MARIA W, struck the Skares, blown stern first into Sandy Haven. Wreck lies in a gully, completely broken up. Scattered plates and diesel engine visible.

Source: Butland & Siedecki, BSAC Wreck register, Scotland 1 1987.

(Classified as M[otor] V[essel], with cargo of fertliser: former name cited as Twin, and date of loss as 22 February 1966). Maria W: this vessel stranded at Sandy Haven, North of Whinnyfold.

Registration: Dutch. Built 1932. 197grt. Length: 33m. Beam: 6m.

(Location of loss cited as N57 23.67 W1 51.33).

I G Whittaker 1998.

The location assigned to this record remains unverified. Sandy Haven is not noted as such on the 1995 edition of the OS 1:50,000 map. The name Whinnyfold appears to apply to an ill-defined area around NK 077 331.

The Scars of Cruden are not noted as such on the 1995 edition of the OS 1:50,000 map, but the name presumably applies to The Skares, a group of exposed rock stacks off the headland at the S end of the Bay of Cruden.

Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 28 January 2008.