Archaeology Notes
Event ID 759111
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/759111
ND49NE 8010 4745 9845
N58 52.24 W2 54.6733
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. 8899.
For adjacent and successor causeway (Churchill Barrier no. 3), see ND49NE 16.
For other blockships in this group, see ND49NE 8001 and ND49NE 8011 -13.
For plan indicating the relative locations and orientations of blockships in this group, see Macdonald 1990, 125.
Horizontal Datum = OGB
General water depth = 2
Circumstances of Loss Details
-----------------------------
The REGINALD was an iron schooner built in 1878 sunk as a blockship at the east end of East Weddel Sound.
Sources: Ferguson 1985; MacDonald 1990 [photo in both books].
Surveying Details
-----------------------------
9 July 1926. The wreck's position is given as 58 52 17.03N, 002 54 47W [the GARTSHORE and LAPLAND are in the same position].
14 March 1972. There is some evidence of steel debris in this area, partly covered in sand and weed.
Report by Undermarine Operations, 5 March 1972.
5 March 1976. A large piece of wreckage shows above the level of mean low water centred on 58 52 14.4N, 002 54 40.4W. It is approximately 35 metres in length and appears to be the stern section of a blockship. There is also a small piece of wreckage showing above mean low water, lying on a bearing of 021 degrees, 75 metres from the above position. Both of these pieces of wreckage are shown on Ordnance Survey aerial photography dated 16 May 1973.
Hydrographic Office, 1995.
(Classified as iron steamship: date of loss cited as 14 September 1914). Reginald: this vessel was scuttled as a blockship in East Weddel [Weddel] Sound.
Registration: Waterford. Built 1878. 930grt. Length: 73m. Beam: 10m.
(Location of loss cited as N58 52.28 W2 54.78).
I G Whittaker 1998.
Length: 240 ft (73.2m): date of sinking 15 September 1914.
'Unballasted. Has not moved. Upperdeck awash at H.W. Very good condition. Likely to last' (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 essentially intact cargo vessel of flush-decked form. Three masts (two of them forward of the superstructure) and the funnel remain erect. What appear to be boats and derricks are apparent aft.
The accompanying map depicts this vessel in hatched outline as lying NW-SE close to the shore of Burray. It is thus the most southerly blockship of the group. The bows are to the NW.
Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 30 January 2004.
PRO [Kew] ADM116/2073A: dated 17 December 1919.
