Archaeology Notes
Event ID 760011
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/760011
HY20NW 8002 2468 0514
N58 55.6417 W3 18.5
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 8702.
For other wrecks in this group, see HY20NW 8001 and HY20NW 8003 -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
Evidence = Echo sounder
Horizontal Datum = OGB
General water depth = 4
Orientation of keel/wreck = 190010
Circumstances of Loss Details
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The steamship ROTHERFIELD was sunk as a blockship.
Surveying Details
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The wreck is reported at 58 55 38.5N, 003 18 30W. The bow is sunk leaving the propeller exposed. It is lying almost parallel with shore with the wreckage drying at low water to expose 2.4 metres
Report by HMS FARNKLIN, 15 May 1940.
15 August 1962. The wreck is now shown as isolated obstructions after being blow up and dispersed.
22 July 1988. The ROTHERFIELD was blown up and dispersed in 1962.
Source: The Ships of Scapa Flow.
The wreck is charted as a dangerous wreck, 98 metres (321 feet) long with the least depth of 1.2 metres. It is lying on an orientation of 190/010degs [bows to the SSW], centred on 58 55 38.5N, 003 18 30W.
Hydrographic Office, 1995.
(Classified as steel steamship: no cargo specified, but date of loss cited as 23 September 1914). Rotherfield: this vessel was sunk as a blockship in Burra Sound, and dispersed in 1962.
Registration: London. Built 1889. 2831grt. Length: 98m. Beam: 12m.
(location of loss cited as N58 55.67 W3 18.63).
I G Whittaker 1998.
Length: 98m
Beam: 12m
GRT: 2831
This steamship was built in 1889 by unspecified builders at West Hartlepool. A triple-expansion engine (of unrecorded power) and two boilers probably drove a single screw. She was sunk as a blockship in 1914.
No details of the form, ownership or the service or commercial history of the ship are apparently available and there is neither a published photograph nor any available description of the dispersed remains left in situ. The wreck was probably blown up and dispersed in 1962.
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: 320 ft (97.6m): date of sinking 23 September 1914.
'Unballasted. Has moved slightly. In good condition. Forecastle nearly submerged. Will last a long time.' (Report dated 28 June 1915 and accompanying panoramic sketch dated 8 December 1915).
The accompanying panoramic drawing (of Burra Sound, looking S towards Hoy from the Graemsay shore) depicts what appears to be a flushed-decked cargo ship with a central superstructure: Neither poop nor fo'c'sle are apparent. The vessel is depicted from fine on the starboard quarter and as settling towards the bow, with the forecastle still clear of the water. The masts and funnel remain erect; the rudder is apparently still in place.
The accompanying map depicts the vessel as lying with bows towards the SSW and almost parallel to the shore, very close to Graemsay. It is this the easternmost in the group.
Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 30 January 2004.
PRO [Kew] ADM116/2073A: dated 17 December 1919.
