Archaeology Notes

Event ID 767932

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/767932

HY64NE 8002 c. 694 467

N59 18.4 W2 32.2

NLO: Whitemill Bay [name centred HY 694 467]

Sanday Sound [name centred HY 67 34]

Sanday [name centred HY 67 40].

Location formerly entered as HY 6950 4640 [N59 18.2028 W2 32.139].

See also ND49NE 8049.

Steamship WANJA, 4000 ton, of Sweden, master Anderson. Bound from Florida to Sweden. Lost 14 Oct 1939. Whitemill Bay, Otterswick, Sanday, Orkney, 8 miles from Start Point Lighthouse. Crew did not see lighthouse. Crew 26, all saved. Cargo phosphate rock.

[Contemporary] source: Start Point Lighthouse.

(Classified as steel steamship, with cargo of phosphate: former names cited as Esther Elina and Aldebaran, and date of loss as 15 October 1939). Wanja: this vessel was wrecked at Burness, Sanday.

Registration: Helsingborg. Built 1919. 2618grt. Length: 91m. Beam: 14m.

(Location of loss cited as N59 18.00 W2 35.00).

(Whittaker also suggests that this vessel may have been recovered for use as a Scapa Flow blockship under the name Nana, for which see HY40NE 8001 and ND49NE 8049).

I G Whittaker 1998.

The location of loss assigned to this record is essentially tentative.

The location of loss is cited by Whittaker as Burness, Sanday [name centred HY 670 466] and by Ridley as Ebb of the Riv [name: HY 680 470]. Both these attributions appear incorrect.

The date of loss cited by Whittaker differs from that cited in the primary (NLB) account of the loss. The latter is preferred.

Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 20 November 2002.