Kathleen

26 January 1914     57 17.044N  01 46.236W      66 in 72 metres

Built: 1887 by Workman, Clark & Co. Ltd., Belfast for J. Milligen & Co., Coal Merchants, Belfast

Construction: iron, 367grt, length 156ft (47.5m), beam 23 ft (7m), draught 12 ft (3.7m)

Propulsion: triple expansion 58 NHP, one boiler, 3 furnaces, machinery by Hawthorns & Co Ltd, Leith

Registered: Aberdeen

The Kathleen was an Aberdeen registered ship, built in Belfast in 1887 by Workman, Clark & Co. Ltd, and owned at her time of loss by North Eastern Shipping Co Ltd of Elgin and Aberdeen. 

On the 23rd and 24th of January 1914, the Kathleen was loaded in Burghead with a deck and hold cargo of railway sleepers and larch deals bound for Middlesbrough, having discharged her inbound cargo of coal from Sunderland. There appears to have been some trouble trimming her, with two tons of cargo being left ashore after she took what was described by a stevedore as a strong and by the harbour master as a slight list to starboard.  She then took a slight list to port, with  skipper Edward Storey telling the harbour master that he was sorry to have taken it off.  This was also seen by John Young, pilot, who saw the crew discharging cargo to correct the starboard list when he came alongside to let go the ropes.

Her calculated freeboard, based on “an exceedingly crude plan, showing the stowage of the timber in the hold” was one foot, three inches.

The formal inquiry into her loss was unable to view any stability calculations, all of her detailed plans and information having been lost in a shipyard fire in 1891. They judged nonetheless that she “was not overloaded, had ample freeboard, and was sufficiently stable…although somewhat tender and probably without a large range of stability.”

Kathleen left Burghead with a crew of ten at 10am on Sunday 25th January, the weather at that time being “fine with a slight westerly wind.” She never arrived in Middlesbrough, nor was she sighted en route.  Two ships reported sightings of wreckage – the Solway Queen sighted sleepers and hatches in the water on the 28th of Jan off the Longstone Lighthouse, and the trawler Strathluie on the 29th of January saw a small boat marked “Kathleen” floating damaged – possibly her lifeboat or her dinghy.  She was eventually realised to have been lost with all hands.

A gale was encountered by other ships off Aberdeen on the 25th and 26th of January, and it was this that the board of inquiry considered the likely culprit for her disappearance. Kathleen was insured for £4,175, and no blame was apportioned.

LOST: Edward T Storey; G Stephens; G Schofield; R Coull; J McKenzie; J Stewart; C Jepson; R Grunfeld; R Babaigce & A Johnoke

The Wreck Today

We found the wreck in July 2022 when revisiting what was known by local fishermen as the "Triangle Wrecks", a group of three wrecks off the mouth of the river Ythan (comprising the St Clement, Crisabelle Stephen and the  as yet, unknown 33-Fathom).  The Kathleen was three miles further out to sea than the Triangle Wrecks and we made a brief detour on our return from finding the Crisabelle Stephen  to confirm her position by sonar.  We returned the next day to dive her and found an upright, small merchantman in 72m of water.  Her holds contained wood but beyond that we found nothing specific to identify her.   We dived her again a few days later with a plan to investigate further and we were rewarded by finding her bell.  It is just as well that we found this as there are no records of her loss in this area and without the bell it would have been almost impossible to determine her identity.

We suspect that Kathleen’s loss was due to a series of interlinked factors including the gale, rather than being neatly and purely the fault of the weather. That said, the fine detail is less important than the fact that her position is now known, and a small historical mystery can be laid to rest.