Archaeology Notes

Event ID 854422

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/854422

ND49NE 8008 4807 9519

N58 50.485 W2 53.99

NLO: Water Sound [name centred ND 460 950]

Stromness [name: HY 253 090]

Scapa Flow [name centred HY 36 00].

See also ND49NE 8048.

Formerly entered as Site no. 8897.

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

For other blockships in this group, see ND49NE 8002-7, 8009 and 8022, and ND49SE 8001.

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

Quality of fix = PHOT

Horizontal Datum = OGB

General water depth = 2

Orientation of keel/wreck = 027/207

Circumstances of Loss Details

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This concrete barge, was sunk as a blockship immediately north of the CLIO. The vessel's name is given as NAJA.

Source: Fergsuon 1985

Surveying Details

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14 March 1972. The wreck's position is given as 58 50 26.5N, 002 54 07W, or bearing 196 degrees, 640 metres from the spot height (107) on Burray. All that remains is a large quantity of rubble and an upright piece, which could be bows. All the large items have been removed.

Report by Undermarine Operations, 5 March 1972.

9 March 1976. A portion of wreck, possibly the bows, is exposed above the level of mean low water at 58 50 29.1N, 002 53 59.4W. The wreck is approximately 35 metres long with its keel orientated 027.5/207.5 degrees.

Source: Ordnance Survey aerial photography dated 16 May 1973.

29 September 1977.

See the stranded wreck at 58 57 51.1N, 002 54 40.5W.

Hydrographic Office, 1995.

(Classified as concrete barge: date of loss cited as 2 March 1939). Majda (Naja?): this vessel was scuttled in Water Sound. Registration: British.

(Location of loss cited as N58 50.47 W2 54.03).

I G Whittaker 1998.

It remains unclear whether or not this loss is to be equated with that of the Nana (also within Water Sound), for which see ND49NE 8048.

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.