Hansi: Linklet Bay, North Ronaldsay, Orkney

HY75NE 8001 c. 781 552

N59 23 W2 23.1

NLO: Linklet Bay [name centred HY 778 542]

North Ronaldsay [name: HY 75 54].

Formerly entered as HY75NE 25 at cited location HY 7816 5524 [N59 23 W2 23.0667].

Steamship HANSI, 1028 ton, of Bergen. Master, S. Gabrielsen. Bound from Hommelvik, Trondheim to Ellesmere Port. Lost 7 Nov 1939, 2.40am. Reel Dyke, 2 miles from North Ronaldsay Lighthouse. Cause of wreck, miscalculation of position. Crew 16, all saved. Cargo paper pulp. 'Steamer came off the reef with rising tide and drifted to north side of Linklet Bay, North Ronaldsay. Presently lying half a mile from the Lighthouse Pier on an even keel, full of water fore and aft to tide level At high water the fore well deck is just awash. Salvage being considered'.

[Contemporary] source: North Ronaldsay Lighthouse.

'Hansi' on passage from Trondheim to Ellesmere Port with wood pulp in 1939, struck reef dyke, was refloated and then driven ashore below Scottigar. Wheelhouse and hull fragment remain on the beach above high-water mark.

Visited by R G Lamb 1979.

Location cited as N59 23 W2 23.04 [HY 781 552]; charted as drying wreck.

G Ridley 1992.

Quality of fix = PA

Horizontal Datum = OGB

Circumstances of Loss Details

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The steamship HANSI was disabled by gales in the North Sea. Abandoned by her crew, she drove ashore in Linklet Bay the following day.

Source: Shipwrecks of Orkney, Shetland and Pentland Firth.

Surveying Details

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28 November 1939. A stranded wreck is reported at 59 23 00N, 002 23 04W approximately, or bearing 059 degrees 2928 metres from the Free Kirk Manse, Ronaldsay.

Report by Receiver of Wreck, Kirkwall.

Hydrographic Office, 1995.

(Classified as steel steamship: no cargo specified, but former name cited as Otranto, and date of loss as 7 November 1939). Hansi: this vessel stranded on Reef Dyke, floated off, and came ashore in Linklet Bay.

Registration: Bergen. Built 1921. 1028grt. Length: 67m. Beam: 10m.

(Location of loss cited as N59 23.0 W2 23.07).

I G Whittaker 1998.

The current chart depicts the Reefdyke (name: N59 21 W2 22) as a N-S reef rising to a charted depth of 3.7m and set across the N part of the E entrance to North Ronaldsay Firth, to the SE of the island of North Ronaldsay. The general charted depth within the firth is about 11m, and the seabed drops away rapidly to the E of the reef.

Linklet Bay is an extensive but ill-defined embayment set into the E coast of North Ronaldsay.

Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 1 February 2005.

HO chart no. 1234 (1982, revised 1993).