Archaeology Notes

Event ID 761619

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/761619

ND49SE 8001 4810 9490

N58 50.3333 W2 53.95

NLO: Water Sound [name centred ND 460 950]

Ayre of Cara [name: ND 476 949]

Stromness [name: HY 253 090]

Scapa Flow [name centred HY 36 00].

For adjacent (and successor) Churchill Barrier No. 4, see ND49NE 17.

Formerly entered as Site No. 8894.

For other blockships in this group, see ND49NE 8002-9 and 8022.

For plan indicating the relative locations and orientations of blockships in this group, see Macdonald 1990, 125.

Quality of fix = CR

Horizontal Datum = OGB

Circumstances of Loss Details

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The paddle steamer GONDOLIER, built in 1866, sold to the Admiralty in 1939. It was sunk as a blockship.

Sources: Ferguson 1985; MacDonald 1990

Surveying Details

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14 March 1972. The wreck's position is given as 58 50 20N, 002 53 57W, or bearing 180.5 degrees and 838 metres from the spot height (107) on Burray. The entire shell of the hull is intact, but the decks and superstructure are missing. The engine and fittings have been salvaged. The paddle wheels have gone. The highest part is the boiler which stands about 2.4 metres high and is 2.4 metres below the surface at low water.

Report by Undermarine Operations, 5 March 1972.

1 September 1992. The wreck is stated to have rolled over and sunk in deep water.

Source: Ferguson 1985

Hydrographic Office, 1995.

(Classified as iron paddle steamship: date of loss cited as 21 March 1940). Gondolier: this vessel was placed [scuttled] as a blockship, rolled over and sank in deep water.

Registration: Glasgow. Bult 1866. 250 grt. Length: 45m. Beam: 6m.

(location of loss cited as 21 March 1940).

I G Whittaker 1998.

Water Sound is the most southerly of the four sounds that pierce the Eastern side of Scapa Flow. It formerly separated the islands of Burray (to the N) and South Ronaldsay (to the S), but is now crossed by Churchill Barrier No. 4 (ND49NE 17), which blocks it near the E (North Sea) end.

Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 2 April 2007.