Diver Inspection

Date 2013

Event ID 998446

Category Recording

Type Diver Inspection

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/998446

Scapa Flow 2013 Marine Archaeology Project

58 53.450 N 2 53.833 W The remains lie on a rocky stone bottom with some mud, particularly at the bottom of the deep tidal scour trench. The bow and stern sit in about 11m of water, while the midships section now sits in the trench in about 18m – 22m of water. The wreckage has a limited coverage of short animal turf. The remains can be affected by swell but are generally sheltered from tide.

A very large wreck, there is a lot of debris across the site including broken iron plates and ribs. Some of these have buckled or torn, while others seem to have broken along the seams. Several of these have porthole apertures. The plating is corroded in places, and this would have been exacerbated by the tide before the construction of the Churchill Barriers. Numerous unrounded stone blocks were noted overlaying the wreckage. It is likely these are the remains of stone ballast which would have been used to sink the vessel. Several sets of bitts, cleats and a large flanged pipe were observed in the debris.

To the stern there is a hold hatch and cargo winch. Moving forward, the valve system from the engine room is present but is no longer in situ, lying off the wreck on the seabed. Piping and associated machinery were observed in the area of the engine room, but the engine was not visible. While it is possible that this has been salvaged, it is also possible that it has been obscured by other wreckage.

While there are numerous sections of wooden decking of varying size across the wreckage, the galley floor appears to have been constructed from metal plating overlaid with bricks. These are close to an air vent.

Towards the bow there are several sections of the forward mast with deadeyes on the gunnel. Some wreckage in this section stands proud of the seabed with portions of the railings visible. There is an air vent aperture associated with wooden decking and another winch in this area.

An abandoned creel was observed within the wreckage.

Analysis

Historical documents and photographs confirm these to be the remains of the SS Minieh (ADM X96-2).

The wreck was originally charted in two pieces off the bows of the Thames. This was amended in 1923 when it was reported that the two sections could be deleted from the chart (as they were no longer considered a hazard to navigation). At the same time the legend ‘channel blocked’ was removed from the charts. This has since been reinstated.

The presence and extent of the remains observed during this survey clearly counter the 1972 UO. Although this was countered by Kevin Heath in 2000, the Fathoms multibeam survey in 2010 failed to identify any remains, though noted the presence of “many rough feature in the area” (UKHO report 1272). It is possible that the failure of the Fathoms surveys to identify the remains could be the result of poor navigation equipment – the DECCA system (http://www.radarpages.co.uk/mob/navaids/decca/decca1.htm) they were using would have had a large margin of error and thus they could have been surveying the wrong location.

Built as the SS Alsatia in 1876 by D.&E. Henderson and Co Ltd, Meadowside,

Glasgow for Henderson Brothers, Glasgow, the SS Minieh is a British iron

steamship. Renamed as the SS Minieh when purchased by Khedivial Mail and SS and Graving Doc Co. Ltd, London in 1901, the vessel was sold to the Admiralty in 1915 and was sunk as a blockship in Kirk Sound on the 27th February 1915.

Documents report that the scuttled blockship broke its back shortly after the sinking but note that the remains were left in place. Historical images from the Admiralty reports (Plate 5) clearly show the fore and aft masts leaning towards each other the archival sources from 1915 describe the remains as “broken and twisted” and likely to “break in half” (ADM X96-2).

Information from Annalisa Christie, Kevin Heath and Mark Littlewood (ORCA) March 2014