Shipwrecks
In addition to the weather conditions, sailing vessels have to contend with strong currents and numerous shipwrecks and hazardous incidents have occurred in and around the sound. In 1832 a fishing boat from Samphrey was caught out in a storm and blown all the way to Norway. The crew returned safely to Shetland the following spring to the relief their families, who had presumed them drowned.
The 18 ton wooden fishing smack Ellen was wrecked on the Rumble Rock, (between Samphrey and Orfasay) on 27 April 1896. In March 1904 the trawler Ibis was wrecked at the same location during a snowstorm, the crew being rescued by the trawler Sunbeam. In June 1914 the 50.2 metres (165 ft) steamer Robert Lea was grounded on Stoura Baa at the north end of Brother Isle en route from Colla Firth to Liverpool also without loss of life. In 1992 the wreck was located in 10 metres (33 ft) of water. The 22 metres (72 ft) fishing boat Morning Star sank approximately 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) north west of Muckle Holm lighthouse whilst under tow after a fire broke out in the engine room. In 1983, the Royal Navy cleared ordnance from Little Holm, and their bomb disposal team discovered an unrecorded shipwreck nearby. Its identity is still unknown. There are no protected shipwrecks in the sound.
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Famous quotes containing the word shipwrecks:
“... overconfidence in one’s own ability is the root of much evil. Vanity, egoism, is the deadliest of all characteristics. This vanity, combined with extreme ignorance of conditions the knowledge of which is the very A B C of business and of life, produces more shipwrecks and heartaches than any other part of our mental make-up.”
—Alice Foote MacDougall (1867–1945)