Archaeology Notes
Event ID 759980
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/759980
ND49NE 8018 4825 9981
N58 52.975 W2 53.8667
NLO: Stromness [name: HY 253 090]
Glimps Holm [name: ND 472 991]
Glimpsholm Skerry [name: ND 482 995]
Scapa Flow [name centred HY 36 00].
Formerly entered as Site no. 8907.
For adjacent and successor causeway (Churchill Barrier no. 2), see ND49NE 15.
For other blockships in this group, see HY40SE 8002, and ND49NE 8014-17, 8019-21 and ND49NE 8023-4.
For plan indicating the relative locations and orientations of blockships in this group, see Macdonald 1990, 125.
ILSENSTEIN, 6518 ton gross, 448' x 56'. Built in 1898 at Keil. Sold for breaking up, but instead sunk as a blockship in February 1940. The wreck is very broken up and scattered over a wide area in depths of about 8 metres.
[The source includes transits for locating her.]
Source: Butland & Siedecki, BSAC Wreck Register, Scotland 1 1987.
Horizontal Datum = OGB
General water depth = 8
Circumstances of Loss Details
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The single-screw steamer ILSENSTEIN was built in 1908 and sunk as a blockship. Built at Kiel, registered Bremen.
Sources: Ferguson 1985; MacDonald 1990
Surveying Details
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14 March 1972. A position of 58 52 58.51N, 002 53 52W is given [the ELTON is in the same position]. The wreck is stated to lie on a bearing of 219.5 degrees, 594 metres from Lamb Holm trig station (61). Half the hull exists around the engine room area and pressed against the wreck of the ELTON. A great deal of blasting has been carried out recently, reducing the height to approximately 2.7 metres, with 3.6 metres of water over it.
Report by Undermarine Operations, 5 March 1972.
4 February 1982. The wreck has been extensively salvaged and blasted in several places. The remainder is deteriorating and dangerous to the incautious diver.
Report by B Winfield, 25 January 1982.
27 May 1982. The wreck is very broken up and spread over a large area. The height is 4 metres in a general depth of 8 metres.
Source: BSAC Wreck Register Vol.V.
20 August 1992. The site was demolished in 1950, and the wreck is well broken up .
Source: MacDonald 1990
Hydrographic Office, 1995.
(Classified as steel steamship: former name cited as Matatua, and date of loss 18 February 1940). Ilsenstein: this vessel was scuttled as a blockship to replace the Cape Ortegal (ND49NE 8023). (1508grt 244x35x15ft?)
Registration: Bremen. Built 1904. 8216grt. Length: 134m. Beam: 17m.
(Location of loss cited as N58 52.97 W2 53.87).
I G Whittaker 1998.
Surveyed 1997.
NMRS, MS/829/60 (pp. 13-14).
Material reported under RoW amnesty (2001):
A3937 2 bearings: from seabed.
NMRS, MS/829/35.
Skerry Sound is not noted as such on the 1998 edition of the OS 1:50,000 map. The name apparently applies to the ill-defined sound leading E from St Mary's Bay {name centred ND 473 002] into Holm Sound [name centred ND 500 992] between Lamb Holm [name: HY 485 003] to the N and Glimps Holm [name: ND 473 992] to the S. It is now closed by Churchill Barrier No. 2 (ND49NE 15: ND 4822 9999 to ND 4785 9952).
Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 18 August 2005.
Skerry Sound is not noted as such on the 1998 edition of the OS 1:50,000 map, but the current edition of the OS (GIS) notes the name around ND 4814 9995, between Glimps Holm and Glimpsholm Skerry.
Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 28 March 2007.
