Archaeology Notes
Event ID 759463
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/759463
HY20NW 8004 2439 0519
N58 55.6667 W3 18.8
NLO: Graemsay [name: HY 270 053]
Hoy Sound [name centred HY 236 072]
Stromness [name: HY 253 090]
Scapa Flow [name centred HY 36 00].
Formerly entered as HY20NW 8862.
For other wrecks in this group, see HY20NW 8001-3 and 8005-6, and HY20SW 8001-2.
For plan indicating the relative locations and orientations of blockships in this group, see Macdonald 1990, 108.
Quality of fix = HSA
Horizontal Datum = OGB
General water depth = 6
Circumstances of Loss Details
-----------------------------
The steamship URMSTONE GRANGE was sunk as a blockship.
Surveying Details
-----------------------------
6 April 1956. The blockship, URMSTONE GRANGE, is reported at 58 55 40N, 003 18 48w.
Source; aerial photographs.
13 April 1956. A request has been received to salvage the propeller from the URMSTONE GRANGE.
15 August 1962. The vessel was dispersed by explosives. It was completely scattered and spread over the seabed. There is a minimum depth of 2.7 metres over the highest point of wreckage. A further survey is recommended after the spring tide which may spread the wreckage further afield.
Report by Bomb and Mine Disposal Officer, Scottish Sommand, July 1962.
Hydrographic Office, 1995.
(Classified as steel steamship: no cargo specified, but date of loss cited as 22 September 1914). Urmston Grange: this vessel was sunk as a blockship in Burra Sound, and dispersed in 1962.
Registration: London. Built 1894. 3423grt. Length: 103m. Beam: 14m.
(Location of loss cited as N58 55.67 W3 18.63).
I G Whittaker 1998.
Length: 103m
Beam: 14m
GRT: 3423
This steamship was built in 1894 by an unrecorded yard and registered at London. A triple expansion engine of unrecorded size and three boilers drove a single screw. She was sunk as a blockship in 1914 and dispersed with explosives in 1962.
No details of the service or commercial history of the ship are apparently available and there is neither a published photograph nor any available description of the remains left in situ.
Burra Sound forms a narrow gap between Hoy Skerries (to the SW) and the island of Graemsay. Several wrecks are charted in a general depth of between 5 and 12m; the sound is subject to pronounced tidal flows.
Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 7 November 2002.
R and B Larn 1998; I G Whittaker 1998.
HO chart 35 (1991).
Length: 340 ft (103.7m): date of sinking 22 September 1914.
'Unballasted. Has not moved. In very good condition. Forecastle nearly submerged. Will last a long time.' (Report dated 28 June 1915 and accompanying panoramic sketch dated 8 December 1915).
The drawing (of Burra Sound, looking S towards Hoy from the Graemsay shore) depicts a three-island general cargo ship of form typical of the period, settling towards the port bow, with the forecastle still awash and still complete. The masts and funnel remain erect; the boats (on the poop) and rudder remain in place.
The accompanying map depicts this blockship as lying with bows towards the ESE and the stern very close to Hoy Skerries. It is thus the westernmost in the group.
Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 30 January 2004.
PRO [Kew] ADM116/2073A: dated 17 December 1919.
