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Budrie: Burra Sound, Orkney

Steamship (20th Century)

Site Name Budrie: Burra Sound, Orkney

Classification Steamship (20th Century)

Alternative Name(s) Budrie; Budrie (Ex. Canning, Golconda)

Canmore ID 102322

Site Number HY20NW 8005

NGR HY 24561 05122

Datum WGS84 - Lat/Long

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/102322

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
Canmore Disclaimer. © Copyright and database right 2024.

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Administrative Areas

  • Council Orkney Islands
  • Parish Maritime - Orkney
  • Former Region Orkney Islands Area
  • Former District Maritime
  • Former County Not Applicable

Archaeology Notes

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

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

The steamship BUDRIE was sunk as a blockship.

Surveying Details

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

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.

Activities

Desk Based Assessment (August 1997)

Throughout the two World Wars Scapa Flow served as the base of the British Home Fleet. Access to these waters was guarded by a series of coastal batteries, booms and blockships. The blockships comprised old and damaged vessels which were deliberately sunk in position so as to form a submarine obstacle to deter enemy incursions. After 1945 some of the blockships were dispersed by explosives to clear the shipping lanes while many others were salvaged for parts and metal. The wrecks of several blockships remain on the sea bed and in the intertidal zone.

(i) [HY20SW 8002] The Gobernador Bories, a 2,332 ton iron steamer, was built in 1882 at West Hartlepool. She was sunk in Burra Sound in 1915. She lies S of Hoy Skerries and is relatively intact.

(ii) [HY20SW 8001] The Ronda was built in 1889 in Sunderland and was sunk in 1914. She was a steel single-screw 1,941 ton steamer. She was dispersed with explosives in 1962.

(iii) [HY20NW 8005] Built in Glasgow in 1882, the 2,252 steel single-screw steamer, Budrie, was sunk in 1915. She was dispersed with explosives in 1962.

(iv) [HY20NW 8003] The Rotherfield was a 2,831 ton steel single-screw steamer. Built in West Hartlepool in 1889, she was sunk in Burra Sound in 1914. She was dispersed with explosives in 1962.

(v) [HY20NW 8004] A 3,423 ton steel single-screw steamer, the Urmstone Grange, was built in Belfast in 1894 and was sunk in 1914. She was dispersed with explosives in 1962.

(vi) [HY20NW 8003] Built in 1938 in Germany, the 8,900 ton tanker Inverlane was holed by a mine off South Shields in 1939. She was patched up, towed to Burra Sound and, there, sunk as a blockship in 1944. She remains relatively intact and her bows are clearly visible, rising from the waters to the S of Hoy Skerries.

(vii) [HY20NW 8006] The Tarbraka was a single-screw steamer of 2,624 tons. Built in Rotterdam in 1909, she was captured by the Royal Navy in 1940 and was sunk as a blockship, initially in Kirk Sound. At the completion of Churchill Barrier 1, the Tarbraka was re-floated and sunk in Burra Sound in 1944. She now lies, upside down, in 12m of water to the S of Hoy Skerries.

(viii) [HY20SW 8001] The 1,761 ton single-screw steamer the Doyle, built in Troon in 1907, was sunk in 1940. She lies relatively intact beneath 15m of water.

Multi Beam Sonar Scan (6 December 2011 - 10 December 2011)

The multibeam sonar data records broken up remains, likely from the wrecks of the Inverlane and Budrie, over an area of seabed of around 4000 sq. m within Burra Sound, at depths ranging from 6.7m to 11.3m below chart datum. Both wreck sites appear dispersed and overlapping and cannot be separated in the data with certainty. However, the following interpretation may be supported by assertions by Wood (2008: 140) that the Inverlane sank directly over the Budrie and that some of the Inverlane’s hull plates cover the lower vessel.

UTM 30 N (WGS 84) X: 482009.1 Y: 6531938. A substantial section of plating lies at an orientation of 41 degrees, and measures 59.8m long, 19.8m wide and 6.9m high. This may be from the top deck of a vessel, possibly the Inverlane, and may overlie remains of the Budrie.

UTM 30 N (WGS 84) X: 482034.8 Y: 6531931 A dispersed section of wreckage covering an area measuring 51m by 16.1m with a maximum height above the seabed of 1.9m, believed to be the remains of Budrie. The largest part of this wreckage, possibly part of the deck, is partially overlain by a curved section of wreck which may be part of the hull of a vessel (possibly the Inverlane). The underlying part is flat and may the remains of a vessel deck. A rectangular feature measuring 2.8m by 5.9m at the southern end of this structure may be the remains of a deck house.

UTM 30 N (WGS 84) X: 482067.1 Y: 6531911 - is the bow or stern of one of the Budrie or Inverlane and measures 25.6m long and 17.1m wide. Although most of the deck and hull plating are missing the shape of the structure is still discernible from the ribs and this section appears to be lying on its keel. A bulkhead can be seen across the south west end of this section of wreck with a square feature running up it and measuring 1.3m by 1.5m across. A boiler rests against the north side of 7016 which is 4.3m across and 3.7m long,

Information from Wessex Archaeology April 2012.

Reference (2011)

Whittaker ID : 2572

Name : BUDRIE (EX. CANNING, GOLCONDA)

Latitude : 585540

Longitude : 31838

Date Built : 1882

Registration : BOMBAY

Type : SS (STEEL)

Tonnage : 2252

Tonnage Code : G

Length : 87

Beam : 11

Draught : 7m

Position : Exact Position

Loss Day : 3

Loss Month : 10

Loss Year : 1915

Comment : Scuttled in Burra Sound as a blockship and subsequently dispersed.

Project (April 2012)

Excerpt from the report:

'SCAPA FLOW WRECK SURVEYS

Archaeological Interpretation of Multibeam data and Desk-Based Assessment

WA Ref: 83680.03

Summary:

WA Coastal and Marine was commissioned by Historic Scotland to provide highresolution multibeam bathymetry data targeted on a number of wreck sites in Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands. The list of targets were provided by Historic Scotland, ordered by priority, based on the importance of the wreck and the lack of prior survey at each site. Scapa Flow is a large natural harbour in the southern part of the Orkney Islands in

the North of Scotland, which served as Britain’s main naval base during WWI and WWII. Its waters hold Scotland’s highest concentrations of shipwrecks. Although some of the wrecks in Scapa Flow have previously been the subject of highresolution multibeam surveys there remain a number of important sites which had only previously been covered by low-resolution data acquisition or not covered at all.

WA Coastal & Marine conducted an archaeological assessment of the multibeam data and a Desk-Based Assessment (DBA) of the wreck sites it covered in order to enhance the historic environment record with respect to these sites and to support Historic Scotland’s work on the Scottish Marine Protected Areas Project. Through a thorough review of published and online material relating to the wrecks thought to be in the vicinity of Scapa Flow it has been possible to produce a detailed discussion of these sites in almost every case and also to clarify a number of conflicting sources. This has enabled us to state with certainty the exact location of

each targeted wreck from the multibeam survey, in some cases for the first time. In addition a thorough review of published material and diver accounts has enabled an informed analysis of features visible at each wreck site. The importance of these wreck sites can now be placed within their national and, in some cases, internationalcontexts.

A total of 18 wrecks were surveyed and assessed over the course this project. 16 of have been identified. The two remaining unidentified wrecks are both located in Burra Sound and are isolated pieces of wreck material, which may be associated with recorded losses in the area. The positions of all 16 identified wrecks have been improved, in some cases by over 100 metres. The survey has also greatly aided in understanding the relative positions of the wrecks to each other. The project has also highlighted discrepancies between some diver reports and observed details in the survey data, such as the structural details of some wrecks.'

Information also reported in Oasis (waherita1-136288) 18 June 2013

Reference (19 April 2012)

UKHO Identifier : 001098

Feature Class : Wreck

Wreck Category : Dangerous wreck

State : LIVE

Classification : Unclassified

Position (Lat/long) : 58.92692,-3.31157

Horizontal Datum : ETRS 1989

WGS84 Position (Lat/long) : 58.92692,-3.31157

WGS84 Origin : Original

Previous Position : 58.92737,-3.30987

Position Method : Differential Global Positioning System

Position Quality : Surveyed

Position Accuracy : 3.0

Depth : 3.5

Depth Method : Found by multi-beam

Depth Quality : Least depth known

Water Depth : 8

Water Level Effect : Always under water/submerged

Vertical Datum : Mean Low Water Springs

Name : BUDRIE

Type : SS

Flag : BRITISH

Length : 86.9

Sonar Length : 12.0

Sonar Width : 10.0

Shadow Height : 3.8

Orientation : 110.0

Tonnage : 2252

Tonnage Type : Gross

Date Sunk : 03/10/1915

Bottom Texture : Rock

Sonar Signal Strength : Strong

Scour Depth : 0.0

Debris Field : NIL

Contact Description : Notable debris

Original Sensor : Reported Sinking

Last Sensor : Acoustic Sensor

Reference (March 2012)

Sitename : Budrie

Altname : Ronda, Burra Sound, Scapa Flow, Orkney

Note : The Budrie and Ronda wreckage are mixed together.

Sources :

Kevin Heath (personal communication),2012

Burra Sound at 2m resolution in WGS1984 Bathymetry id 2010-27833_ScapaFlowMain_Burra_2m_SB_WGS84.bag

Reference (March 2012)

Sitename : Budrie: Burra Sound, Scapa Flow, Orkney

Altname :

Note : Located at NGR 324593E 1005138N.

Source :

Burra Sound at 2m resolution in WGS1984 Bathymetry id 2010-27833_ScapaFlowMain_Burra_2m_SB_WGS84.bag

Change Of Location

The location of this site record has been reviewed and changed from NGR HY 24593 05138 to HY 24561 05122 as part of record revision work carried out by HES Designations in connection with the Scottish Marine Protected Areas Project. Information from HES Designations (P Robertson) 18 January 2024

References

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