Another excellent dive in Shetland. Video below. Click below for more details on the wreck.
The Maggie Warrington was an 896 grt iron cargo ship built by R. Irvine & Co, West Hartlepool in their Harbour Dock yard as yard number 24 (official number 78771) and launched on 4th April 1878 for Samuel Hough, Liverpool. She had a single screw powered by a 120 hp 2 cylinder compound engine (30” and 55” cylinders with 3’ str0ke) with 2 boilers from Blair & Co., Stockton and was 220.0 x 30.0 x 16.1 feet with a 54 ft quarter deck and 23ft fo’castle.
In 1902 she was owned by R. G. Hough, Liverpool and in 1904 again by Samuel Hough but with R.G. Hough as managers. In 1911 she was renamed “Mary Hough” and later owned by Annie Hough SS. Co., Ltd. In 1913 she was owned by T. Stone & Co., Liverpool and renamed “Gwladmena”. Finally in 1915 she was owned by Stone & Rolfe, Liverpool.
On the 18th November 1890 she was involved in a collision with a barque (“Anna”) under tow near Gravesend. Her starboard bow was stoved in, plates amidships were damaged,and her starboard side bridge davits, main rigging and main topmast carried away.
On the 1st January 1918 the Gwladmena (under Captain Frank Wood) and the Flora (under Captain S.Sorensen) both with cargoes of coal sailed as part of an Admiralty convoy from Methil destined for Norway. The convoy arrived at Breiwick the following evening and around 10:00 PM the Flora, whilst being guided to her anchorage, saw the outline of a ship directly ahead. Her engines were thrown into full steam astern and an anchor dropped, but it wasn’t enough to avoid her colliding with the now anchored Gwladmena. The two ships separated quickly but the damage had been done and the Gwladmena sank in less than 15 minutes. Captain Frank Wood and the 16 crew of the Gwladmena were able to safely abandon ship before she foundered.
It transpired that at the time of the collision the Gwladmena, having arrived at her anchorage, had not yet withdrawn her navigation lights and hoisted her aft riding light. The owners of the Flora alleged in Court that the Master was therefore misled into thinking that the Gwladmena was underway and that they would pass safely red to red. However the Flora had also failed to follow in the wake of the pilot vessel guiding her to her own anchorage and it the fact that the Flora’s course was instead directly into the Gwladmena which Lord Blackburn identified in his judgement as the cause of the incident. His Lordship observed that it was impossible to say whether the failure to observe the regulations and hoist the correct lights on the Gwladmena contributed to the incident, nor that hoisting them would have prevented it. The owners of the Gwladmena sued for the value of the vessel (£50,000) whilst the Lord Advocate sued on behalf of the Ministry of Shipping for the value of the lost coal (£9,180). On the 29th April 1920 a petition was presented by D/S Dania, the owners of the Flora, requesting a stay of all pending suits or actions in relation to their liability in the collision and to limit their liability to £9,800.
Her bell with her original name was recovered in June 1988. Under the Receiver of Wreck amnesty (2001) item A428 was reported – 1 lump of coal from the seabed In February 1998 the anchor of a Russian Klondike (“Silver Harvest”?) reportedly ripped open the stern section.
