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Archaeology Notes

Event ID 760576

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/760576

HY20SW 8002 2459 0471

N58 55.4083 W3 18.5833

NLO: Graemsay [name centred HY 25 05]

Stromness [name: HY 253 090]

Scapa Flow [name centred HY 36 00].

For plan indicating the relative locations and orientations of blockships in this group, see Macdonald 1990, 108.

Formerly entered as HY20SW 8860.

For other wrecks in this group, see HY20NW 8001-6 and HY20SW 8001.

Horizontal Datum = OGB

General water depth = 10

Orientation of keel/wreck = NS

Circumstances of Loss Details

-----------------------------

The steamship GOBERNADOR BORIES was sunk as a blockship.

Surveying Details

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1926. A dangerous wreck is reported at 58 55 25N, 003 18 33W. It is completely submerged with a least depth of 5.4 metres over it. The davits show at low water.

21 July 1988. The hull is broken up, but the stern is intact.

Source; Ferguson 1985

The site is charted as a dangerous wreck with a least depth of 3 metres. It is 87 metres long, and the keel is orientated 000/180 degrees. The wreck is centred on 58 55 24.5N, 003 18 35W.

(authority not stated)

Hydrographic Office, 1995.

(Classifed as iron steamship: no cargo specified, but former name cited as Wordsworth, and date of loss as 12 October 1914). Gobernador Bories: this vessel was sunk as a blockship in Burra Sound.

Registration: Punta Arenas. Built 1882. 2332grt. Length: 87m. Beam: 12m.

(Location of loss cited as N58 55.42 W3 18.55).

I G Whittaker 1998.

The Blockships of Burra Sound. The GOBERNADOR BORIES sits on her keel at a depth of 17.3m in a setting of rocks and pure white sand. She has a list to starbaord. With visibility at 15m you can see large sections of the wreck. her bow and starboard side are virtually intact, and inside the water is calm. Amidst the vessel's boilers lies a mass of tangled decking and struts a blaze of colour from marine life. The stern retains its original shape.

Source: Diver Magazine [unstated year] 28.

Material reported under RoW amnesty (2001):

A3723 1 oil box lid (20 x 10cm): from seabed.

NMRS, MS/829/35.

Length: 87m

Beam: 11m

GRT: 2332

This ship (formerly the Wordsworth) was built in 1882 by W Gray and Co., West Hartlepool and served for some years as a whaling ship [presumably a factory vessel] based at Punta Arenas, near Cape Horn. A two-cylinder compound engine of 224hp and a two boilers powered a single screw. The ship had two decks and five bulkheads. The poop, boat deck and forecastle measured 26ft (7.9m), 56ft (17.1m) and 30ft (9.1m) in length respectively.

She was sunk as a blockship in 1915, being one of the first blockships to be set in place; neither a published photograph nor any other details of the service or commercial history of the ship are apparently available. The wreck has not been dispersed by explosives, remains substantially intact (although lacking her superstructure), and is regularly visited by sport divers. Both bow and stern apparently remain well-defined, and many fittings remain in place.

The major identifiable features comprise the boilers, engine and related fittings. The steering mechanism is also to be seen.

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.

(The Diver article cited contains a comprehensive description of the remains).

Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 4 October 2002.

R and B Larn 1998; I G Whittaker 1998; Diver 2000.

HO chart 35 (1991).

Length: 286 ft (87.2m): date of sinking 12 October 1914.

'Unballasted. Completely submerged. Three fathoms over her at L.W. Davits visible.' (Report dated 28 June 1915).

The accompanying map depicts the vessel in outline as lying well to the S of the main group, in the centre of the sound, and with bows towards the N. The accompanying panoramic sketch (dated 8 December 1915) omits this ship.

Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 30 January 2004.

PRO [Kew] ADM116/2073A: dated 17 December 1919.

People and Organisations

References