Archaeology Notes
Event ID 853677
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/853677
HY20NW 8005 2459 0514
N58 55.6417 W3 18.5917
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 8863.
For other wrecks in this group, see HY20NW 8001-4 and 8006, 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 = 8
Orientation of keel/wreck = 300/120
Circumstances of Loss Details
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The steamship BUDRIE was sunk as a blockship.
Surveying Details
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The vessel is reported at 58 55 39N, 003 18 36W with its funnel and masts visible above the water. The length is 285 feet (86 metres), and the vessel is lying with its keel orientated 300/120 degrees. The bows are to the north west. The vessel was concrete ballasted.
1939. The vessel is reported with its stern drying and after mast still standing.
Report by HMS SCOTT.
15 May 1940. The stern dries to reveal 3 metres, and the mainmast stands about 28 metres high.
Report by HMS FRANKLIN.
1975. There is no trace of the wreck on Ordnance Survey aerial photographs taken in June 1975. The vessel is probably amongst those wrecks which were dispersed in 1962.
22 July 1988. The wreck is charted as a dangerous wreck, with the least depth of 2.4 metres. It is 85 metres long, and lying with its keel on an orientation of 300/120 degrees. The wreck is centred on 58 55 38.5N, 003 18 35.5W. (authority not stated)
Hydrographic Office, 1995.
(Classified as steel steamship: no cargo specified, but former names cited as Canning and Golconda, and date of loss as 3 October 1915). Budrie: this vessel was scuttled as a blockship in Burra Sound, and subsequently dispersed.
Registration: Bombay. Built 1882. 2252grt. Length: 87m. Beam: 11m.
(Location of loss cited as N58 55.67 W3 18.63).
I G Whittaker 1998.
Length: 87m
Beam: 11m
GRT: 2252
Originally the Canning (or Cannig) and formerly the Golconda, this steamship was built in 1882 by A and J Inglish at Glasgow and registered at Bombay. A two-cylinder compound engine of 200hp and two boilers probably drove a single screw. The ship was three-decked, the poop, boatdeck and forecastle measuring 41ft (12.5m), 48ft (14.6m) and 30ft (9.1m) in length respectively. She was sunk as a blockship in 1915.
Before being requisitioned, this ship was owned by Arab Steamers Ltd. No further details of the service or commercial history of the ship are apparently available and there is neither a published photograph nor any available description of the 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: 274 ft (83.6m): date of sinking 3 October 1915.
'Concrete Ballasted. In good condition and likely to last.' (Report dated 26 September 1916 and accompanying panoramic sketch dated 8 December 1915).
The accompanying panoramic drawing (of Burra Sound, looking S towards Hoy from the Graemsay shore) depicts a flushed-decked cargo ship with a central superstructure: The masts and funnel remain erect, and the vessel is lying level, with waterline at about its normal level on the ship's side.
The accompanying map depicts the vessel as lying with bows towards the WNW, to the E of the centre of the channel (towards the Graemsay shore) and to the W of the Rotherfield (no. HY20NW 8002).
Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 30 January 2004.
PRO [Kew] ADM116/2073A: dated 17 December 1919.
