Fram

1 February 1940

stern 57 42.734N 02 13.465W     37 in 46 metres

bow 57 42.097N 02 10.584W     31 in 37 metres

Built:  1897 by Sir Raylton Dixon & Co Ltd, Middlesbrough

Construction:  steel 2,491 grt, length 314.7 ft (95.9m), beam 43 ft (13.1m), draught 20.5 ft (6.2m)

Propulsion:  triple expansion 233 NHP, 2 boilers, machinery by G Clark Ltd, Sunderland

Registered:  Kalmar, Sweden

Built as the Russ for Det Danske Russiske Dampskibssel Skab, Copenhagen, Denmark.  In 1922 she was sold to Angfartygs Kjell A/B, Kalmar, Sweden and renamed the Fram.

Having sailed in convoy from Stockholm in ballast, on the 31st January 1940 the convoy anchored a mile offshore in Aberdour Bay to wait out a severe south-easterly storm.  At 01:43 on the 1st of February the Fram was struck amidships by a torpedo fired from U-13, the ship was cut in two, and whilst the anchored bow section filled and sank rapidly, the stern drifted off to the north-west before sinking two miles NNE of Pennan head.  From the bow section, 7 crew got off on a raft and drifted 10 miles offshore before they were picked up 12 hours later by the Aberdeen steam trawler Viking Deeps, however two had perished by the time they were rescued.  From the stern section, 10 crew got off on a raft and survived 36 hours in the Moray Firth before they were spotted by a patrolling aircraft  which directed a trawler to the scene.  A total of ten of the twenty-five crew of the Fram were lost.

The stern section of the Fram had been discovered by Aberdeen BSAC back in 1976 so it was well known to the local diving community, in fact up until the mid 1990's it was probably the only offshore wreck known and dived in the North-East.  After a number of failed attempts trying to find the wreck using transits in poor visibility, we finally started diving the Fram during the summer of 1994 when reasonably priced marine GPS sets became available.

The stern of the Fram lies in 48 metres at 57 42.734N 0213.465W orientated 160/340 degrees with the highest part, the stern to the north and the lower, midships part to the south.  The intact stern lies on its starboard side with the deck almost vertical and rising 9 metres from the seabed to the starboard gunwhale, forward of this, the wreck is almost on an even keel with a slight list to starboard.  Holds 4 and 3 with a winch between them have collapsed down to seabed level then moving forward there is the framework of the midships superstructure and beyond the wreckage is highly degraded before ending in a jumble of scattered plates and beams. 

In 1995 the bow section of the Fram had not been found and no-one seemed that interested in looking for it, so having tired of the usual scenic or inshore wrecks on our Sunday dive trips from Rosehearty, we decided to find it.  On the 25th June we set out in thick fog from Rosehearty for a dive on the Fram stern and on the way back ran an echo-sounder search in the area where we thought the bow might be.  An hour and a half later we had found nothing, but the fog started to lift a bit and we could see land - Mike commented that we seemed too close to shore for a ship to be anchored so we motored out to another old mark we had found previously but never investigated.  Within 10 minutes we found a 6mtr high trace, dropped the shot and went in - there she was!

The bow of the Fram lies in 37 metres at 57 42.097N 02 10.584W orientated 000/360 degrees with the focsle to the south and the after end to the north.  The highest part is the focsle with the stem rising 6 metres above the seabed, the after end of the focsle has collapsed down leaving the focsle deck at an acute angle pointing to the surface.  The anchor chains, wrapped around the focsle trail off to the south-east.  Aft of the focsle are the remains of holds 1 and 2, flattened down to just above sea level, a donkey-boiler lies to the east of hold 2 and one of the two main boilers lies about 100 metres away to the north-west.

U-13's War Diary chart and translation for the attack on the Fram

Fram dive video July 2012