Archaeology Notes

Event ID 851022

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/851022

HY40SE 8009 4824 0117

N58 53.7083 W2 53.8917

NLO: St Mary's Bay [name: HY 477 005]

Stromness [name: HY 253 090]

Scapa Flow [name centred HY 36 00].

Formerly entered as Site no. 8706.

For adjacent and successor causeway (Churchill Barrier no. 1), see HY40SE 25.

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

Horizontal Datum = OGB

Buoyage =

General water depth = 2

Orientation of keel/wreck = 228/048

Circumstances of Loss Details

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The NUMIDIAN was a steel single-screw steamship, built in 1891, and sunk as a blockship in Kirk Sound. It was salvaged in February 1924 by East Coast Salvage Co.

Source: Wrecks of Scapa Flow.

Surveying Details

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14 June 1920. A stranded wreck shown at 58 53 40N, 002 53 45W, or bearing 064 degs, 1020 metres from Skaildaquay Point.

18 October 1923. The stranded wreck reported at 064degs, 1186 metres from Skaildaquay Point gives a position of 58 53 42.5N, 002 53 53.5W.

Report by Kings Harbour Master, Scapa Flow.

The site is mentioned in salvage operations of the AORANGI at 58 53 26N, 002 51 42W.

14 March 1972. The wreck is stated to lie on a bearing of 338 degrees, 1036 metres from Lamb Holm trig station (61). The hull is full of stones and rocks. No superstructure remains. The top of the hull is never less than 1.2 metres below water and is strong enough to last many years. It lies with its keel on an orientation approximately 045/270 degrees to the east of Gambhira, but in the same line and parallel to the shore.

Report by Undermarine Operations, 5 March 1972.

18 August 1992. The vessel is now a complete jumble of wreckage. The hull is almost completely removed, but lies about 60 metres south of the NW side of the barrier. The main wreckage is made up of layers of collapsed plating, not having a recognisable ship's form. The stone blocks used to sink the blockships are also visible.

Source: Macdonald, 1990.

Hydrographic Office, 1995.

(Classified as steel steamship: no cargo specified, but date of loss cited as 30 December 1914). Numidian: this vessel was turned parallel to the shore [presumably in the same location] in 1923, after being scuttled as a blockship in 1914.

Registration: Glasgow. Built 1891. 4838grt. Length: 122m. Beam: 14m.

(location of loss cited as N58 53.70 W2 53.88).

I G Whittaker 1998.

Length: 400 ft (122m): date of sinking 30 December 1914.

'Ballasted. Very good condition and likely to last. Stern awash at H.W.' (Report dated 28 June 1915 and accompanying panoramic sketch dated 8 December 1915).

The accompanying panoramic drawing (of Kirk Sound, looking E from St Mary's Pier) depicts what appears to be essentially a flushed-decked cargo ship with a central superstructure and slightly raised fo'c'sle: no poop is apparent. The vessel is depicted from the port beam and as settling towards the stern; the masts and funnel remain erect.

The accompanying map depicts the vessel as lying with bows towards the NNW on the and at right-angles to the (mainland) shore, to which it very close. It is the most northerly blockship in the group.

Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 30 January 2004.

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

Kirk Sound is not noted as such on the 1998 edition of the OS 1:50,000 map. The name applies to the most northerly of the sounds on the E side of Scapa Flow, beteween Lamb Holm (to the S) and St Mary's village, Holm, Mainland (to the N). It is centred at HY 484 010, and is spanned by Churchill Barrier No. 1 (HY40SE 25).

Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 21 March 2007.