Archaeology Notes
Event ID 757835
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/757835
ND49NE 8012 4735 9853
N58 52.2833 W2 54.7833
NLO: Weddell Sound [name centred ND 477 988]
Stromness [name: HY 253 090]
Scapa Flow [name centred HY 36 00].
Formerly entered as Site no. 8901.
For adjacent and successor causeway (Churchill Barrier no. 3), see ND49NE 16.
For other blockships in this group, see ND49NE 8001 and ND49NE 8011 -12 and 8013.
For plan indicating the relative locations and orientations of blockships in this group, see Macdonald 1990, 125.
Horizontal Datum = OGB
Buoyage =
General water depth = 5
Circumstances of Loss Details
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The iron single-screw steamship GARTSHORE was built in 1880 and sunk as a blockship. Built at South Shields and registered there.
Sources; Ferguson 1985; MacDonald 1990
Surveying Details
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9 July 1926. The wreck's position is given as 58 52 17.01N, 002 54 47W [LAPLAND and REGINALD are in the same position].
14 March 1972. There is no sign of a wreck in this area. There are none of the characteristic rust stains of a wreck that has been removed and no trace of even the smallest debris.
Report by Undermarine Operations, 5 March 1972.
28 August 1992. The GARTSHORE mingles with that of the EMPIRE SEAMAN on the W side of the barrier.
Source: MacDonald 1990
Note: the position given in 1926 would appear incorrect if the vessel lies on the west side of the barrier.
Hydrographic Office, 1995.
(Classified as iron steamship: former names cited as Castilla and Bedford, and date of loss as 14 September 1914). Gartmore: this vessel was scuttled as a blockship. (Gartshore?).
Rgistration: British. Built 1879. 1774grt. Length: 82m. Beam: 11m.
(Location of loss cited as N58 52.28 W2 54.78).
I G Whittaker 1998.
(Name cited as Gartmore).
Length: 270 ft (82.3m): date of sinking 14 September 1914.
'Unballasted. Broken up. Poop ashore. Forecastle visible at H.W.' (Report dated 28 June 1915 and accompanying panoramic sketch dated 8 December 1915).
The accompanying panoramic drawing (of East Weddel Sound, looking W from the N point of Burray) depicts only an indeterminate portion (presumably the bow) of this vessel hard against the shore of Glimps Holm. Neither mast nor funnels remain erect.
The accompanying map depicts this vessel in hatched outline as lying N-S against the shore of Glimps Holm. It is thus the most northerly blockship of the group.
Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 30 January 2004.
PRO [Kew] ADM116/2073A: dated 17 December 1919.
