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Elton: Skerry Sound, Scapa Flow, Orkney
Steamship (20th Century)
Site Name Elton: Skerry Sound, Scapa Flow, Orkney
Classification Steamship (20th Century)
Alternative Name(s) Churchill Barrier No. 2; Churchill Causeway; North Sea; Elton
Canmore ID 102363
Site Number ND49NE 8019
NGR ND 4825 9981
Datum Datum not recorded
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/102363
- Council Orkney Islands
- Parish Maritime - Orkney
- Former Region Orkney Islands Area
- Former District Maritime
- Former County Not Applicable
ND49NE 8019 4825 9981
N58 52.975 W2 53.8667
NLO: Stromness [name: HY 253 090]
Glimps Holm [name: ND 472 991]
Glimpsholm Skerry [name: ND 482 995]
Scapa Flow [name centred HY 36 00].
Formerly entered as Site no. 8908.
For adjacent and successor causeway (Churchill Barrier no. 2), see ND49NE 15.
For other blockships in this group, see HY40SE 8002, and ND49NE 8014-18, 8020-1 and ND49NE 8023-4.
For plan indicating the relative locations and orientations of blockships in this group, see Macdonald 1990, 125.
Horizontal Datum = OGB
General water depth = 8
Circumstances of Loss Details
-----------------------------
The steel steamship ELTON was built 1880 and sunk as a blockship. Built and registered in West Hartlepool.
Sources: Ferguson 1985; MacDonald 1990
Surveying Details
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9 June 1926. The position given is 58 52 57N, 002 53 51W [TEESWOOD, ALERIA and REINFIELD are in the same position].
14 March 1972. The position given is 58 52 58.52N, 002 53 52W [ILENSTEIN is in the same posn], or bearing 219 degrees, 594 metres from Lamb Holm trig stn (61). Only half the hull about the engine room remains. The engines and fittings are in place. Both endd of the wreck have been flattened by sea and spread over a large area.
Report by Undermarine Operations, 5 March 1972.
The midship section remains in a fairly good condition and is visible at low water. The mast is visible at all times. The stern section is cut off and removed just aft of the engine room. The large boiler still remains in situ. The funnel lies on the seabed hard up against the hull on starboard side. The prop shaft gearing mechanism is lying amid debris where the stern has been cut away. A second section of hull lies 12 metres in front of the first. A considerable amount of ribbed plating perhaps the remnants of CAPE ORTEGAL or REINFIELD lie around the stern section.
Source: MacDonald 1990
Hydrographic Office, 1995.
(Classified as steel steamship: date of loss cited as 3 OIctober 1914). Elton: this vessel was scuttled as a blockship.
Registration: West Hartlepool. Built 1888. 2461grt. Length: 91m. Beam: 12m.
(Location of loss cited as N58 52.97 W2 53.87).
I G Whittaker 1998.
Length: 300 ft (91.5m): date of sinking 3 October 1914.
'Unballasted. Bottom up. Back broken. Likely to break up.' (Report dated 28 June 1915 and accompanying panoramic sketch dated 8 December 1915).
The accompanying panoramic drawing (of Skerry Sound, looking E from close to the location of the Rosewood) depicts this vessel as inverted but still essentially structurally intact. The propellor and rudder are still apparently in place, and the stern is towards the N. The vessel is level in the water.
The accompanying map depicts this vessel in the solid, and as lying E-W to the N of the centre of the channel, and of the Almeria (ND49NE 8024). The map is thus apparently at variance with the panoramic depiction.
Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 30 January 2004.
PRO [Kew] ADM116/2073A: dated 17 December 1919.
Skerry Sound is not noted as such on the 1998 edition of the OS 1:50,000 map. The name apparently applies to the ill-defined sound leading E from St Mary's Bay {name centred ND 473 002] into Holm Sound [name centred ND 500 992] between Lamb Holm [name: HY 485 003] to the N and Glimps Holm [name: ND 473 992] to the S. It is now closed by Churchill Barrier No. 2 (ND49NE 15: ND 4822 9999 to ND 4785 9952).
Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 18 August 2005.
Skerry Sound is not noted as such on the 1998 edition of the OS 1:50,000 map, but the current edition of the OS (GIS) notes the name around ND 4814 9995, between Glimps Holm and Glimpsholm Skerry.
Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 28 March 2007.
Reference (2011)
Whittaker ID : 2556
Name : ELTON
Latitude : 585258
Longitude : 25352
Date Built : 1888
Registration : WEST HARTLEPOOL
Type : SS (STEEL)
Tonnage : 2461
Tonnage Code : G
Length : 91
Beam : 12
Draught : 7m
Position : Exact Position
Loss Day : 3
Loss Month : 10
Loss Year : 1914
Comment : Scuttled as a blockship
Project (2013 - 2014)
The Scapa Flow 2013 Marine Archaeology Survey Project, commissioned by Historic Scotland, undertook remote sensing surveys and archaeological diving evaluations at some of the sites within Scapa Flow, Orkney and at the Churchill Barriers.
The project aimed to establish or confirm the identification, extent of survival, character and condition of around 28 known but mostly poorly recorded First and Second World War wreck sites, 8 salvage sites, several sites thought to be associated with Second World War Boom Defences, and a limited sample of geophysical features identified in previous studies (Project Adair).
The work built on that of previous surveys including those completed as part of the ScapaMap Project (2001 and 2006) and by Wessex Archaeology Scapa Flow Wrecks Survey (2012), amongst others.
The project was completed by ORCA Marine and SULA Diving
Diver Inspection (2013)
58 52.975 N 2 53.867 W The remains of each of the contact lie on a sand and cobble bottom in about 8m of water. If as interpreted the remains are from the same vessel the wreck would be oriented northeast to southwest with the bow to the southeast. The remains can be affected by storm swells but are generally sheltered from tide. The wrecks in Skerry
Sound are subject to coastal accretion with an increase in sedimentation caused by the construction of the barriers.
Descriptions are provided below:
Contact 1. The remains were noted to be a section of bow, standing approximately 2m proud of the seabed. There is a porthole aperture in the plating near the apex of the remains, and corroded steel hull plating with a light coverage of short animal turf. The wreckage is situated on the edge of a scour depression. Two pipes run along the edge of a section of plating, the larger of which forms of coupling with a gear wheel. Sections of modern lines were entangled in the remains
Contact 2: The wreckage was found at the base of a 1m deep depression. The remains of a steel propeller shaft tunnel aft of an engine room were observed. Portions of the coupling for the propeller shaft are slightly exposed. Within the tunnel there is an open door and door aperture which would have provided access to the narrower shaft tunnel is visible to the northeast of the remains. There is no evidence of boilers and engines in this area. These may still be buried or they may have been salvaged. The remains are well corroded and while the top of the section is covered with well-established short animal turf, the deeper sections are not colonised. This suggests that the majority of the remains are normally covered in
sand. It is likely they were exposed as a result of recent storms. To the northeast of the debris the aft section of the ship gets increasingly buried until no remains are visible. The wreckage has some evidence of fouling from lines and there is an abandoned creel.
Contact 3: A small piece of wreckage with steel plates and ribs was recorded. These appear to be part of the stern sections of a vessel. The remains are partly corroded with a light coverage of short animal turf. The alignment of the vessel and the distance between Contacts 2 and 3 suggest they are from the same vessel.
Directly inshore from Contact 3 there are a number of steel plates and rib sections scattered along the shore where they intermingle with the iron remains of the SS Teeswood.
Analysis
Historical documents and images suggest these are the remains of the SS Elton (ADM X96-3).
The UKHO report (1265) records that in 1926 the SS Teeswood, SS Elton, SS Almeria and SS Reinfield are all in the same location, although with the exception of the SS Cape Ortegal all these wrecks have their own unique UKHO record.
In UO survey completed in 1972 subsequently indicates that the SS Ilsenstein is in the same position as the SS Elton; however, the descriptions of the remains recorded during the 1972 surveys are not detailed enough to determine which vessel the remains are associated with.
This project has clearly shown that they are not referring to the SS Elton.
Both Ferguson (1985) and Macdonald (1993) confuse the SS Elton with the mis-identified remains of the Emerald Wings. Macdonald states that the mast of the vessel he believes is the SS Elton is visible at all times. This is incorrect. The mast that is reported is that of the SS Emerald Wings.
The 1915 sketch of the Skerry Sound blockships in in ADM X96-3 (Plate 9) clearly show the SS Elton capsized and further to the east. Furthermore, this project has demonstrated that the remains of the SS Elton are flattened and no part of the wreckage is visible above the water
A British steel steamship built in 1888 by Gray William & Co., Ltd., West Hartlepool for R. Ropner & Co., West Hartlepool the Elton was purchased by the Admiralty in 1914 and was sunk as a Blockship in Skerry Sound on 3rd October 1914.
Information from Annalisa Christie, Kevin Heath and Mark Littlewood (ORCA) March 2014
Side Scan Sonar Survey (2013)
58 52.975 N 2 53.867 W This site was assessed by side scan sonar surveys using a winch-towed towfish.
The side scan images show three prominent contacts and some indeterminate debris. These contacts are indicated as 1, 2 and 3 on the image.
Contact 1: A small triangular feature standing approximately 2m proud of the seabed. The nature of the wreckage is unclear from the side scan image. Contact 1 is situated north east of Contact 2.
Contact 2: Situated northeast of Contact 1, the image show a large piece of
wreckage in a depression in the seabed which scour patterns suggest is likely to have been exposed recently. Sections of plating, ribs and a strong linear feature were noted on this contact which measures 10m long by 4m at its widest point. This contact appears to be upstanding, with rounded corners.
Contact 3: Situated approximately 31m northeast of Contact 2, sections of ribs and plating and a linear feature were also noted on this contact which measures 3m long by 2m at its widest part. The linear features in contacts 2 and 3 are aligned on the same orientation suggesting they are from the same vessel.
Information from Annalisa Christie, Kevin Heath and Mark Littlewood (ORCA) March 2014
