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Britannia: Dingieshowe Bay, Deerness, Orkney, North Sea

Sloop (19th Century)

Site Name Britannia: Dingieshowe Bay, Deerness, Orkney, North Sea

Classification Sloop (19th Century)

Alternative Name(s) Dingys How Bay; Upper Sanday; St Peter's Pool; St Peter's Bay; Deer Sound; Taracliff Bay; Britannia

Canmore ID 274287

Site Number HY50SE 8007

NGR HY 550 033

NGR Description HY c. 550 033

Datum Datum not recorded

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/274287

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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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

HY50SE 8007 c. 550 033

N58 54.9 W2 46.9

NLO: Upper Sanday [name: HY 542 035]

Deer Sound [name centred HY 535 079]

Taracliff Bay [name centred HY 555 031]

Deerness [name centred HY 567 067].

Possibly on map sheet HY50SW.

Orkney & Shetland Telegraph Cable. During a severe storm on the 16th Oct., a vessel having on board the telegraph cable to be laid down between Orkney and Shetland, was wrecked at Deerness, Orkney: the cable is expected to be recovered: crew saved. The steamer accompanying the vessel to lay down the cable was nearly driven ashore.

Source, LL, No. 17,633, London, Saturday, October 22 1870.

Deerness, 17th Oct. The BRITANNIA (sloop), of Leith, Harrison, for Kirkwall, with telegraph cable, &c., left Aberdeen, 15th Oct., in tow: next day, during a gale, the tow-rope broke and the vessel drove ashore in Dingys How [Dingieshowe] Bay, where she is breaking up: crew saved: the greater portion of the telegraph cable expected to be saved. [Record received incomplete].

NMRS, MS/829/72 (no. 11862).

(Classified as sloop, with cargo of telegraph cable: date of loss cited as 16 October 1870). Britannia: this vessel broke from tow, and was wrecked at Dingys Howe [Dingieshowe], Deerness. Capt. Harrison.

Registration: Leith.

(Location of loss cited as N58 54.75 W2 46.75).

I G Whittaker 1998.

The location assigned to this record is essentially tentative. Dingys How or Dingieshowe Bay is not noted as such on the 1998 edition of the OS 1:50,000 map. The name presumably applies to the small bay on the S side of the isthmus between Upper Sanday (Mainland) and Deerness. This bay is apparently also known as St Peter's Pool or St Peter's Bay. Dingieshowe broch (HY50SW 7) is at HY 5476 0330.

Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 19 August 2005.

Activities

Loss (16 October 1870)

Orkney & Shetland Telegraph Cable. During a severe storm on the 16th Oct., a vessel having on board the telegraph cable to be laid down between Orkney and Shetland, was wrecked at Deerness, Orkney: the cable is expected to be recovered: crew saved. The steamer accompanying the vessel to lay down the cable was nearly driven ashore.

Source, LL, No. 17,633, London, Saturday, October 22 1870.

Deerness, 17th Oct. The BRITANNIA (sloop), of Leith, Harrison, for Kirkwall, with telegraph cable, &c., left Aberdeen, 15th Oct., in tow: next day, during a gale, the tow-rope broke and the vessel drove ashore in Dingys How [Dingieshowe] Bay, where she is breaking up: crew saved: the greater portion of the telegraph cable expected to be saved. [Record received incomplete].

NMRS, MS/829/72 (no. 11862).

(Classified as sloop, with cargo of telegraph cable: date of loss cited as 16 October 1870). Britannia: this vessel broke from tow, and was wrecked at Dingys Howe [Dingieshowe], Deerness. Capt. Harrison.

Registration: Leith.

(Location of loss cited as N58 54.75 W2 46.75).

I G Whittaker 1998.

Note (19 April 2005)

The location assigned to this record is essentially tentative. Dingys How or Dingieshowe Bay is not noted as such on the 1998 edition of the OS 1:50,000 map. The name presumably applies to the small bay on the S side of the isthmus between Upper Sanday (Mainland) and Deerness. This bay is apparently also known as St Peter's Pool or St Peter's Bay. Dingieshowe broch (HY50SW 7) is at HY 5476 0330.

Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 19 August 2005.

Reference (2011)

Whittaker ID : 11052

Name : BRITANNIA

Latitude : 585445

Longitude : 24645

Registration : LEITH

Type : SLOOP

Loss Day : 16

Loss Month : 10

Loss Year : 1870

Comment : Broke from tow and wrecked at Dingys Howe, Deerness. Capt. Harrison

Cargo : TELEGRAPH CABLE

Reference (2011)

Whittaker ID : 17731

Name : BRITANNIA

Date Built : 1814

Registration : LEITH

Type : SLOOP (WOOD)

Tonnage : 47

Tonnage Code : G

Length : 15

Beam : 5

Loss Month : 10

Loss Year : 1870

Comment : Left Aberdeen for Kirkwall in October 1870. Not heard since.

Last Seen : 10/1870

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