Crisabelle Stephen

16 January 1939     57 16.963N  01 53.257W     37 in 42 metres

Built:  1906 by A.Hall & Co Ltd, Aberdeen, Yard no 419

Construction:  steel, 230 grt, length 120.1 ft (36.6m), beam 22.7 ft (6.6m), draught 11.5 ft (3.5m)

Propulsion:  triple expansion, one boiler

Registered:  Aberdeen A374

Crisabelle Stephen was built in 1906 by A. Hall & Co of Aberdeen as the FV Albatross (PH17).  She was requisitioned by the royal Navy during WW1, eventually returned to civilian use (and renamed Albatross II - FD 353), and passed through a series of owners and home ports before returning to Aberdeen and being renamed Crisabelle Stephen (A374) in 1930 by the Stephen Fishing Co.

She had two reported incidents before her loss, damaging her stem in Jan 1933 after colliding with an unknown steamer in thick fog; and in July 1937, putting into Kirkwall with a flooded engine room and no working pumps, having developed trouble eighty miles out.  Kirkwall was reached by “steaming an hour, then lying-to an hour, and pumping out with the donkey engine.”  By unhappy coincidence, the headline of the newspaper page reporting her collision in fog is “Nine lives lost in night disaster to Aberdeen trawler”, referring to the loss of the Venetia off Stonehaven. 

On January 16th 1939 Crisabelle Stephen left Aberdeen and headed north for the fishing grounds under skipper Francis Fraser of 9 Canal Street, Aberdeen.  He knew the boat and had in fact been on her when she had flooding trouble two years earlier.  Conditions were poor, with fog patches and a heavy SE swell.

Shortly before 6pm she struck the Sea Stone of the Cruden Scares. This was seen from the shore and the Whinnyfold lifesaving company and the Peterhead lifeboat were both dispatched.  Sounding her siren for assistance the Crisabelle Stephen attracted the passing trawler East Coast, the skipper of which, David Noble, was a native of Cruden Bay and knew the Scares well. 

It’s unclear if the Crisabelle Stephen came off the rocks under her own power or if the East Coast dragged her off, both being reported, but she was refloated. 

At this point the Cruden Bay motor yawl Posie arrived, carrying William Tait and three other men. They heard the trawler’s siren and had come to help despite the weather, Mr Tait having previously been the coxswain of the Port Errol lifeboat. He asked a crew member on the Crisabelle Stephen if assistance was wanted, but the answer was no. 

“I then asked if they had been on the rocks and the reply again was ‘No’. Then I said, ‘What’s wrong with you then that you are tooting your horn so much’. The man I spoke to pointed down in the galley and I took it for granted that it was engine trouble.” 

He told his sons, however, that the trawler seemed to have taken in water. 

“I said...that the ship was going down. I did not think it would ever reach Aberdeen. I told the villagers that when I got back to the pier.”

At about 7pm the East Coast took Crisabelle Stephen under tow and headed south for Aberdeen. The coastguard lookout at Collieston saw the pair pass at 1935, but the Belhelvie lookout, next in line down the coast, did not. 

After approximately eighty minutes under tow, off the mouth of the Ythan, disaster struck. Skipper Noble described the scene. 

“We heard a shout from the Crisabelle Stephen and pulled up. The cry we heard was to ‘Beach her.’ Then suddenly the vessel was lifted high on the crest of a huge sea and rolled right over. 

“It happened before we had time to get the shackles out. She was down in three minutes. It was dark, and mist made it more difficult for us to see. We saw two or three of them in the water, however.

Our fireman, Wemyss, tied a rope around his waist and jumped into the water to go to the rescue of a man he saw in the water. We saw the Crisabelle Stephen’s small boat, and two of our men went on board but there was no one in it. With the help of Wemyss we managed to rescue one man, but the others were quickly lost in the darkness. The man we got on board was pretty far gone.”

Chief Engineer John Pirie died after recovery from the sea, and only one other body was ever found. 

John Pirie was buried on Jan 19th in Springbank Cemetery on the same day the body of Francis Fraser was found washed ashore near Girdleness Lighthouse. Pirie’s coffin was carried by the crew of the East Coast, including F Wemyss and David Noble. “While the coffin was being lowered into the grave the drone of the siren of a ship moving through the fog at sea broke in faintly on the stillness which brooded over the cemetery. To those grouped around the grave it sounded like a farewell from the sea to its dead.”

Skipper Francis Fraser was buried on Jan 21st in Allenvale Cemetery, the streets so thickly packed police needed to direct traffic. The crew of the East Coast were unable to attend, having left for the fishing grounds two days earlier. Margaret Low, daughter of fireman John Low, left flowers on his grave.

An inquiry was held in May 1939 and returned a verdict that the ship had been damaged by the grounding and gradually filled until she sank under tow.

Sherriff Laing summed it up.  “It is a little difficult to understand why these men should have refused to take assistance except on the footing that at the time they didn’t quite realise the result of running aground.”

James Allen of the East Coast spoke to Evening Express the day after the disaster. 

“It is a mystery of the sea that will never be solved. It is something we will never forget all our lives. At one time we were within twenty feet of the Crisabelle Stephen just near enough to throw a heavy warp.  We could have taken them off then, and a yawl which was also near could have taken the crew off... the skipper must have felt sure his ship was safe.” 

LOST: Francis Fraser; George McKenzie; John W Pirie; George Proctor; G W Fraser; Alexander Mackenzie; Charles Sivewright; John Low; James McPherson

The Wreck Today

The mark for this wreck was given to us by Boddam fisherman, Gordon Morrison, in 2007 and formed the west point in a group of three wrecks in the immediate vicinity referred to as the Triangle Wrecks (the others being the Dungonnell and the St Clement).   We confirmed the location of the wreck by echo sounder later in 2007 but did not dive it until July 2022.

She lies about 3.6 miles east of the mouth of the river Ythan and, as such, she is very silty and the visibility was poor.  We found an upright shipwreck in 42m, her propeller blades were sheared and there is slight structural damage to her stern gunwale.  Despite the poor visibility, we identified a stern deck house running forward to an engine hatch, stack hole, air intakes and bridge area, all holds and engine room were full of silt.  Beyond this, a large steam trawl winch with capstans and then remains of trawl gallows.   A large, whaleback was at the bow, with accommodation hatches below.  The wreck has an orientation of 100/280 degrees, bows to the west.

The wreck was clearly a fishing vessel, but the whaleback was quite unique amongst the other fishing vessels we have identified off the Buchan coast, the propeller damage indicated a collision or grounding.    

The Aberdeen Evening Express on17th Jan 1939  reported a quote from James Allen, second fisherman on the East Coast : "We were in twenty-three fathoms of water then and could not have been more than three or four miles off the land."

Given the wreck's position, 3.6nm E of the river Ythan and depth of 23 fathoms, both very consistent with James Allen's comments, plus the existence of the distinctive whaleback which matches the photograph of her in the 1930's, we are confident that we have found the wreck of the Crisabelle Stephen.