Rosebud Ii: Torran Rocks, Iona, Passage Of Tiree

NM21SE 8003 c. 28 13

N56 14 W6 23

NLO: Soa Island [name: NM 245 193]

Torran Rocks [name centred NM 28 13].

Formerly entered as NM21SE 1 and NM21SE 8001 at cited location NM 2575 1426 [N56 14.5 W6 24], and also as NM21NW 8002 at cited location NM c. 245 193 [N56 17.2 W6 27.1].

Formerly classified as Trawler.

Enquiry opens today into sinking of ROSEBUD II. A Mayday signal intercepted by a Birmingham radio ham on Monday night sparked off one of the biggest air/sea rescue operations ever to have been mounted in the Hebrides, an operation which has ended in stark tragedy with the loss of the Burghead fishing boat ROSEBUD II and her entire crew of seven, including two brothers. It was announced that a preliminary enquiry into the sinking will be opened in Oban today by the Department of Trade and Industry.

A call at 8.30 on Monday night from Oban radio brought out the Islay lifeboat in answer to the Mayday call which came from the area of the treacherous Torran Rocks [name: NM 28 13] off the Ross of Mull where the boat had grounded in a heavy south west wind, and the crew had taken to the liferafts. All ships in the area were immediately alerted, and within minutes, fishing boats in the vicinity headed for the scene to search in vain in the darkness. Fishing boats alongside Oban's Railway Pier cast off and steamed towards the Torrans while a Shackleton aircraft circled the area. In the early light of dawn a liferaft was spotted near Erraid, but this was found later to be deflated, and not from the stricken ship. At 08.46, the fishing boat Reliant came upon wreckage drifting half a mile west south west of Eilean a Chalmain [Eilean Chalmain: NM 30 17]. This was identified as being part of the ROSEBUD II. A few minutes earlier, an RAF helicopter from 202 air/sea rescue squadron took off from Leuchars to join the hunt for the missing crew.

Among ships now in the area were the fishing boats Vernal, Castlehill, Prevail, Accord, Welfare, Reliant, Sharon Rose, as well as the Islay lifeboat. At around 10.00am, however, the first tragic find was made when skipper Dan Ralph's crew of the Burghead vessel Accord, found a crewman's body floating off Eilean a Chalmain. The victim was later identified as 32 year old Sandy Mckenzie of Burghead, whose brother Billy, also from Burghead, was still among the missing. A second body was found a few miles north of the scene off the Dutchman's Cap [name: NM 24 38] in the Treshnish Isles.

Source: Oban Times, 17 December 1970.

(Classified as M[otor] F[ishing] V[essel]: date of loss cited as 14 December 1970). Rosebud II: this vessel disappeared in the vicinity of Torran Rocks. Registration: Burghead.

(Location of loss cited as N56 14.0 W6 25.0).

I G Whittaker 1998.

The location assigned to this record remains unverified, but is accepted. The Torran Rocks extend over a considerable area of sea to the SW of the Ross of Mull.

Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 20 May 2008.