The iron steamship Aberavon was launched from the Port Glasgow yard of Cunliffe and Dunlop Ltd (Yard No 123) on 4th May 1877. She measured 194.5′ x 25.3′ x 14.0′ and her tonnage was 624 gross tons, 382 net tons. She was powered by a 95 registered horse power compound steam engine. She was ordered by G C McKay and Co Ltd of Grangemouth and registered there for service on the North Sea coastal routes.
Profile plan steamship Aberavon
She arrived at Middlesbrough from Antwerp on 18th January 1878 and immediately began loading a cargo of 800 tons of pig iron. Departing from Middlesbrough at 5pm Monday 4th February she headed for Grangemouth under the command of Captain James Graham with a crew of 14 men . The ship was well founded but it emerged later that her main compass had a two degree deviation. Whether this ultimately contributed to the loss of Aberavon is unclear.
For the first few hours of the voyage they steamed through a thick fog on a calm sea. The captain was on watch till midnight when the watch was handed over to the mate. However the captain remained on bridge till 2 am on 5th until they safely passed the Farne Islands. At this point the weather cleared and the bright light of St Abbs Head was clearly visible in the distance. Graham then went below to rest leaving orders to be awakened at 4am for his next watch or when they reached St Abbs Head if that was sooner. The night was now clear and the visibility excellent. The lights of the houses and villages on the coastline could be seen clearly. Two hours later, as instructed, the mate informed the captain they were approaching St Abbs Head. Graham did not come on deck immediately but instructed the mate to steer NW by W once they passed St Abbs Head. At the end of his watch at 4am the mate passed the captain’s orders on to the second mate who, at this point, took over the wheel. With the second mate at the wheel, although he did not have the appropriate certificate to take charge of the vessel, they continued at full speed of eight and a half knots. It appears that the exhausted captain had fallen asleep again as he did not return to the bridge until it was too late. At one point another steamer was sighted off their starboard bow and a minor course correction to the west was made to keep away from the course of the approaching steamer. At 5:45am the vessel stranded at Thortonloch.
Unsurprisingly the testimonies of the various crew members involved were not consistent about the events that led to the stranding. Captain Graham stated that he checked the steering when he reached the bridge and it was set at NW. However the second mate’s testimony stated that he had in fact altered course slightly to the east after he passed the unknown steamship as he saw that the land was getting close.
Immediately after the ship crashed ashore and shuddered to a halt Graham rushed on deck and ordered engines reversed but to no avail. He ordered the cargo to be thrown overboard to lighten the ship but this also had no affect. Soon after the hull split and the ship separated midships. She became a total wreck.
The enquiry highlighted a number of inadequacies in the operation of the ship that led to her loss with communication failures about the various course alterations at the heart of the matter. In the final reckoning, with an uncertified member of the crew at the wheel at the time of stranding, the captain was ultimately responsible and his certificate was suspended for three months.
The position indicated for this wreck at 55°57.500N, 002°23.400W is calculated approximately as no information is available regrading the exact location or indeed of any wreckage remains after salvage.
We would like to thank Lloyd’s Register Foundation – Heritage & Education Centre for allowing us to reproduce documents from their archive in this article.
