Samson: Sinclair's Bay, North Sea

ND55NW 8012 unlocated

NLO: Keiss [name: ND 347 612]

Keiss Castle [name: ND 356 617]

Sinclair's Bay [name centred ND 37 56].

Possibly on map sheets or ND36SW.

9 March 1884, SAMSON, 48 yrs old, of Aberdeen, wooden brigantine, 122 tons, 5 crew, Owner Harty & Co., Sunderland, departed Sunderland for Aberdeen, carrying lime, 5 lives lost, wind SE10, stranded, total loss, Keiss Bay, Caithness.

Source: PP Abstracts Returns of Wrecks and Casualties on Coasts of the UK 1883-84 (1884-85 [C.4493] LXX.421).

Wick, March 10, 12 15 p.m. Schooner, of Aberdeen, ashore this morning at Keiss Bay: vessel gone to pieces, and all the crew supposed lost: two bodies washed ashore. Gale still continues. Wind SE, heavy sea.

Source: Casualties &c., LL, No. 21,797, London, Tuesday, March 11 1884.

SAMSON. Wick, March 10, 12 15 p.m. The schooner SAMSON, of Aberdeen, ashore this morning at Keiss Bay: vessel gone to pieces, and all the crew supposed lost: two bodies washed ashore. Gale still continues. Wind SE, heavy sea.

Source: Casualties &c., LL, No. 21,798, London, Wednesday, March 12 1884.

NMRS, MS/829/69 (no. 3476).

(Classified as wooden hermaphrodite [brigantine or schooner], with cargo of lime: date of loss cited as 9 March 1884). Samson: this vessel is presumed to have foundered off Keiss. Wreckage washed ashore. Capt. Halcrow.

Registration: Aberdeen. Built 1836. 128grt. Length: 25m. Beam: 6m.

(Location of loss cited aas N58 30.00 W2 50.00).

I G Whittaker 1998.

The map sheet assigned to this record is essentially arbitrary. Kiess or Keiss Bay is not noted as such on the 1999 edition of the OS 1:50,000 map.

A classification as a brigantine is preferred, but remains unverified.

Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 5 September 2005.