Columbus: Castle Geo, Stroma, Pentland Firth

ND37NW 8012 c. 339 763

N58 41 W3 7

NLO: Island of Stroma [name: ND 35 77]

Mell Head [name: ND 339 761]

John o' Groats [name centred ND 385 727]

Pentland Firth [name centred ND 35 81].

Formerly entered as ND37NE 8017 at cited location ND c. 35 77 [N58 41 W3 7].

Not to be confused with ND47NE 8018.

Possibly on map sheet ND37NE.

30 April 1888. COLUMBUS. 79 years of Norway. Wood schooner. 239 ton. 6 crew. Master H.E. Henricksen. Owner T.W. Warner, Drammen, Norway. Drammen to Londonderry. Timber & 1 passenger. Wind SE5. Stroma Island, Caithness.

Source: PP Abstracts of Shipping Casualties on Coasts, or in Rivers and Harbours of the UK July 1887-88 (1889 [C.5730] LXIX.597).

NMRS, MS/829/68 (no. 1712).

(Classified as wooden schooner, with cargo of timber: date of loss cited as 30 April 1888). Columbus: this vessel stranded at Castle Geo, Stroma. Capt. Henricksen. All gone, but constructive total loss [?}.

Registration: Norwegian. Built 1809. 239nrt. Length: 28m. Beam: 7m.

(Location of loss cited as N58 40.5 W3 8.0).

I G Whittaker 1998.

The location assigned to this record is essentially tentative. Whittaker cites a location at Castle Geo for this stranding. This feature is not noted as such on the 1999 edition of the 1:50,000 map, but the name probably applies to a cleft near Castle Mestag [ND37NW 3: ND 3397 7633].

Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 27 September 2002.

I G Whittaker 1998.