Unknown: Bowling Harbour, River Clyde

Horizontal Datum = OGB

Buoyage =

Surveying Details

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14 December 1994. The legend 'numerous wrecks' has been placed on the chart at 55 55 49.5N, 004 29 18W to cover an area of 14 small wrecks in Bowling Harbour.

Report by Clyde Port Authority, 6 May 1987.

Hydrographic Office 1995.

Bowling harbour (NS47SW 64.00) forms the tidal basin (open to the River Clyde) before the first sea lock entrance to the Forth and Clyde (NS47SE 82).

The tidal basin has a collection of derelict and abandoned vessels moored alongside the quays. These include eleven wooden fishing vessels, two cabin cruisers, RN picket boats (two sunk), two large trawlers (partially dismantled), and a small foreign coaster.

Within the inside the first sea lock, there are a large lighter/barge, a RN picket boat, a small tug (named Clansman), and another small coastal forces patrol boat.

Most of these vessels are substantially intact, but some are approaching archaeological status.

Visited by Deanna Groom (RCAHMS Maritime Enhancement Project), 14 August 1996.

The wrecks NS47SW 8001 and 8002 are presumably two of the fourteen (ranging from fishing boats to leisure craft and Admiralty tenders) that are noted as comprising the ship graveyard within the basin at the entrance to Bowling Harbour. Ship breaking may have been carried out within the basin, and operations to reopen the Forth and Clyde Canal ('Millennium Link') pose the threat of clearance.

Vertical air photography: FCC 7343/45/564-5, flown 9 June 1975.

Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 13 December 2000.

NMRS, MS/829/21.

The wrecks NS47SW 8001 and NS47SW 8002 are presumably two of the fourteen (ranging from fishing boats to leisure craft and Admiralty tenders) that are noted as comprising the ship graveyard within the basin at the entrance to Bowling Harbour. Ship breaking may have been carried out within the basin, and operations to reopen the Forth and Clyde Canal ('Millennium Link') pose the threat of clearance.

Vertical air photography: FCC 7343/45/564-5, flown 9 June 1975.

Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 13 December 2000.

NMRS, MS/829/21.

(Location entered as centred NS 4456 7360 [N55 55.825 W4 29.3]). The Bowling Harbour ship graveyard was recorded in outline in advance of wreck-clearance operations by British Waterways Board. Reconnaissance was carried out during a period of falling tide; safety considerations precluded access to the wrecks across the mud. In consequence, the wrecks were not examined internally and in detail. The locations cited were derived by plotting by eye onto a 1:2500 scale map, and are cited as approximate.

At the date of visit, a pontoon-mounted JCB was working in the E part of the Western Harbour; clearance of the wrecks had not started.

The following vessels were recorded:

NS47SW 8002.01 NS c. 44505 73600 No. 1 Steel motor coaster: Selby River (possibly)

NS47SW 8002.02 NS c. 44421 73598 No. 2 Wooden sailing cargo vessel (prob.)

NS47SW 8002.03 NS c. 44421 73670 No. 3 Unidentified wooden vessel (prob.)

NS47SW 8002.04 NS c. 44506 73630 No. 4 Unidentified iron or steel vessel

NS47SW 8002.05 NS c. 44579 73658 No. 5 Unidentified wooden vessel

NS47SW 8002.06 NS c. 44628 73648 No. 6 Steel ship's lifeboat

NS47SW 8002.07 NS c. 44628 73648 No. 7 Wooden vessel of indeterminate form

NS47SW 8002.08 NS c. 44648 73648 No. 8 Wooden vessel of indeterminate form

NS47SW 8002.09 NS c. 44680 73630 No. 9 Steel ship's lifeboat (prob.)

NS47SW 8002.10 NS c. 44680 73633 No. 10 Unidentified wooden vessel

NS47SW 8002.11 NS c. 44690 73633 No. 11 Unidentified wooden vessel

NS47SW 8002.12 NS c. 44700 73635 No. 12 Unidentified wooden vessel

NS47SW 8002.13 NS c. 44730 73615 No. 13 Steel tug

NS47SW 8002.14 NS c. 44650 73605 No. 14 Unidentified wooden vessel

NS47SW 8002.15 NS c. 44775 73605 No. 15 Motor fishing vessel

NS47SW 8002.16 NS c. 44780 73600 No. 16 Motor fishing vessel

NS47SW 8002.17 NS c. 44790 73602 No. 17 Steel ship's lifeboat

NS47SW 8002.18 NS c. 44790 73595 No. 18 Steel ship's lifeboat

NS47SW 8002.19 NS c. 44795 73595 No. 19 Wooden fishing vessel (prob.)

NS47SW 8002.20 NS c. 44920 73500 No. 20 Wooden sailing cargo vessel (prob.)

NS47SW 8002.21 NS c. 44940 73515 No. 21 Steel tug (poss.)

All these vessels appear to have been stripped of their fittings before deposition, and they all appear to date from the mid- to late-20th century, having presumably been abandoned during and after the period when the harbour was in use for scrapping (in the years after 1945).

Visited by RCAHMS (RJCM), 26 March 2006.

NLO: Bowling [name: NS 445 737].

See also NS47SW 64.00 and NS47SW 8001.

Formerly entered as NS47SW 9089.