Archaeology Notes
Event ID 759515
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/759515
HY61NE 8001 675 156
N59 1.6 W2 34
NLO: Auskerry [name: HY 675 163].
Location formerly cited as HY 6807 1856 [N59 3 W2 33].
(Location cited as HY 675 156). SS Hastings County. The remains, still quite impressive, are scattered over several hundred yards of jaggedly rocky foreshore. The engine block, apparently a triple-expansion with cylinder approx 14", 40" and 55". Diameter, about 50" stroke, is lying apart from the bed-plate to which is attached the massive crankshaft and beginning of the propeller shaft, incorporating a multi-collar thrust block. Another major length of main shaft lying some distance away to NE. A boiler is said to be exposed at low spring tides.
(Reference made to issues of The Orcadian and The Orkney Herald between 17 June and 14 July 1926).
RCAHMS 1984 (visited by Dr R G Lamb, August 1983).
Quality of fix = PA
Horizontal Datum = OGB
Circumstances of Loss Details
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SS Hastings County, 4178 gross tons, 2559 net, built in America 1920, owned by Lorentz W Hansen, Bergen, went ashore in fog below Auskerry lighthouse on Sunday evening, 13 June 1926, while attempting to make
the Fair Isle passage en route from Hamburg to Montreal.
The mixed cargo comprised largely of toys and teddy bears and two luxury motor-pinnaces carried as deck cargo, subsequently salvaged, as was most of the bunker coal.
Imformation taken from The Orcadian, 17 and 24 June (photo) 1926, and The Orkney Herald, 16, 23 and 30 June and 14 July 1926.
The steamship HASTINGS COUNTY, built in 1920, was wrecked off Auskerry lighthouse, whilst en-route from Hamburg to Montreal. The fore section broke off and sank. The vessel was owned at time of loss by Lorentz W. Hansens Red.
Source: Dictionary of Disasters at Sea.
Surveying Details
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7 August 1986. The wreck was dived upon at 59 03 00N, 002 33 00W during 1986. It is very much broken up. The engine crankshaft is laid on foreshore near the lighthouse.
Report by B Winfield, 26 July 1986.
Hydrographic Office, 1995.
(Classified as steel steamship, with general cargo: former name cited as Sierra Nevada, and date of loss as 13 June 1926). Hastings County: this vessel stranded at Auskerry Light, and was on fire during salvage operations, 28 September 1926.
Registration: Bergen. Built 1920. 4178 grt. Length: 116m. Beam: 16m.
(Location of loss cited as N59 1.10 W2 34.3).
I G Whittaker 1998.
Auskerry lighthouse (HY61NE 10) is at HY 6724 1556.
Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 24 January 2005.
