St Catherine: Saint Catherine's Dub, Collieston, North Sea

St Catherine's Dub, the dark, cliff-girt, bay at Collieston, is traditionally the site of the sinking of a Spanish Armada ship. It was, in fact, a ship from the Spanish Netherlands gun-running for Francis, eighth Earl of Erroll's Catholic uprising in 1594. He died in 1631 and was buried 'upone the nicht' in the kirk at Slains. His body was 'convoyit quyetlie with his awin

domesticks and countrie freindis and with torche licht'. It was the Earl's wish that the expense saved should be given to the poor. He was celebrated by Arthur Johnston thus:

'Nascentem placido te vidit

lumine Pallas,

Mens apta est studius prurit in

arma manus.

(Pallas with kindly eye looked

on thy birth,

Fitted is thy mind for learned

pursuits - thy hand in

deeds of battle excels.)'

Taken from "Aberdeenshire: Donside and Strathbogie - An Illustrated Architectural Guide", by Ian Shepherd, 2006. Published by the Rutland Press http://www.rias.org.uk

NK02NW 8001 c. 043 285

N57 20.8 W1 55.7

NLO: Collieston [name: NK 040 285]

St Catharine's Dub [name: NK 044 285].

Formerly entered as NK02NW 8335 at cited location NK 0429 2850 (N57 20.8333 W1 55.7167).

Formerly entered as NK02NW 25 and NK02NW 8002 (cited location NK c. 044 286).

The tradition that the St. Catherine was wrecked in St. Catherine's Dub was confirmed in 1855 when the minister raised one of the guns. It is 7'9" long (c2.5m), of iron, and is at the manse of Slains where it has been mounted on a carriage. There are said to be more guns in the same pool.

Name Book 1870; OS 6-inch map, Aberdeenshire, 1st edition, 1870, sheet xlviii.

St Catherine's Dub -

site of the wreck of the St Catherine, one of the ships of the Spanish Armada AD 1588 (NAT)

OS 6" map, (1959).

Peterhead, Aberdeenshire: Santa Catarina. The Dolphin Club Peterhead found an iron cannon, bar, metal cylindrical container and lead base reputed to be from this shiop which sunk in 1588.

[Location and whereabouts of finds not stated: the attribution of this loss to Peterhead is evidently arbitrary, being presumably based on the home base of the finders].

J Cherry 1972.

Horizontal Datum = OGB

General water depth = 19

Circumstances of Loss Details

-----------------------------

A ship supposedly from the Spanish Armada was sank about 180 metres N of Collieston in August 1588 at a site now called St Catherine's Dub. Some cannons were recovered there during the last century.

Source: Underwater World Magazine, May 1967.

Surveying Details

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5 May 1967. Cannons have been raised from depths of 18.2 metres in the vicinity of St Catharine's Dub.

Source: The Wreck Hunters.

The approximate NGR is eastings 404300, northings 828500n, which converts to 57 20 50N, 001 55 43E. This is the legendary 'site of the wreck of the St Catharine, one of the ships of the Spanish Armada, 1588'. The site appears on (1:10,000).

Hydrographic Office 1995.

(Classified as galleon: no cargo specified, but date of loss cited as 1588). Santa Catarina (Santa Catharina?): this vessel [was lost] near Collieston. Registration: Spanish.

(Location of loss cited as N57 20.75 W1 55.50).

I G Whittaker 1998.

Material reported under RoW amnesty (2001):

A140 Lead ballast weight (rolled lead around flint boulders): 2ft [0.61m] x 4 ins [102mm]: 50 lbs. 1/2 mile N of Collieston and 20m off Averhill Rock.

[No accurate location cited and grounds for associating this discovery with the Santa Catalina not stated].

NMRS, MS/829/33.

The location assigned to this record is essentially tentative. Averhill Rock is not noted as such on either the 1999 edition of the OS 1:50,000 map or HO chart no. 213 (1975, amended 1991).

Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 22 September 2003.