Archaeology Notes

Event ID 758280

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/758280

ND49NE 8004 4803 9532

N58 50.555 W2 54.0333

NLO: Water Sound [name centred ND 460 950]

Holm Sound [name centred ND 500 993]

Stromness [name: HY 253 090]

Scapa Flow [name centred HY 36 00].

Formerly entered as Site no. 8741.

For adjacent (and successor) Churchill Barrier No. 4, see ND49NE 17.

For other blockships in this group, see ND49NE 8002-3, 8005-9 and 8022, and ND49SE 8001.

For plan indicating the relative locations and orientations of blockships in this group, see Macdonald 1990, 125.

Horizontal Datum = OGB

General water depth = 1

Orientation of keel/wreck = NS

Circumstances of Loss Details

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The single-screw steel steamship CARRON was built in 1894 and sunk as a blockship.

Source: Wrecks of Scapa Flow.

Surveying Details

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14 March 1972. The wreck's position is given as 58 50 35.5N, 002 54 00W, or bearing 191 degrees, 350 metres from the spot height 170 on Burray. The keel lies on an orientation of 000/180 degrees. The hull is virtually intact with superstructure from the bows to within 6 metres of the stern. The entire ship is sunk into the sand. Only 1.5 metres height of the bows, 2.4 metres of the midships and 0.6 metres of the aft are visible. The bows are never covered by the sea. Earlier salvage by Messrs Matches has put a large crater over the engine room area.

Report by Undermarine Operations, 5 March 1972.

5 March 1976. A large hulk with little superstructure remaining is to be found at 58 50 33.3N, 002 54 02.0W. The position given is that of the base of the stern mast which is the only mast remaining and appears to have collapsed to an odd angle from the vertical. The wreck is about 70 metres long and is lying on an orientation of 000/180 degress with the bows to the north.

Source: Ordnance Survey aerial photography dated 16 May 1973

28 August 1992. The wreck is substantially intact and only a small section of superstructure is exposed at low water.

Sources: MacDonald 1990; Ferguson 1985

Hydrographic Office, 1995.

(Classified as steel steamship: former names cited as Glasgow and Stirling, and date of loss as 3 March 1940). Carron: this vessel was scuttled as a blockship in Holm Sound. It now lies on the seaward side of the N end of No. 4 barrier.

Registration: Grangemouth. Built 1894. 1068grt. Length: 73m. Beam: 10m.

(Location of loss cited as N58 50.55 W2 54.03).

I G Whittaker 1998.

The name Holm Sound applies to the waters E of Lamb Holm [name: HY 485 003] on the E side of Scapa Flow.

Water Sound is the most southerly of the four sounds that pierce the Eastern side of Scapa Flow. It formerly separated the islands of Burray (to the N) and South Ronaldsay (to the S), but is now crossed by Churchill Barrier No. 4 (ND49NE 17), which blocks it near the E (North Sea) end.

Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 2 April 2007.