The steel motor trawler Aberdeen City was launched from the Footdee yard of Alexander Hall and Sons Ltd on 14th January 1957. She measured 115.6′ x 25.4′ x 12.5′ and her tonnage was 264 gross tons, 91 net tons, She was powered by a 6 cylinder 4SA diesel engine by Mirrlees, Bickerton an Day Ltd, Stockport delivering 760 brake horse power. She was built for Aberdeen Motor Trawlers Ltd and was to operate for this company for her entire career. Her official number was 183857.
Aberdeen City leaving port
Lloyd’s register 1960
At 10:30am on Sunday 15th September 1963 she set out on her latest voyage to the Faroese fishing ground under the command of her usual skipper William Henderson who had a crew of twelve men aboard. As they headed up the Scottish east coast and across the Pentland Firth the weather deteriorated and skipper Henderson decided to steer towards the Sanday coast to hopefully find some shelter from the westerly wind and swell. Just before midnight on 15th as they approached Start Point, Sanday the skipper handed the wheel over to the second hand with course set to north north west. The second hand was later to testify that the instruction had been to steer north west. There was also a disagreement about the speed of the vessel with the skipper indicating the speed had been decreased due to the weather conditions but the engineer stating they were running at full speed for much longer than the skipper said. In both cases, the court of enquiry believed the skipper’s version of events. When the skipper took back control of the wheel just after 1am on 16th it appears that his vessel was closer to the shore than he anticipated when he stopped her engines to allow a deck hand to secure some gear on the deck. His error was compounded by a failure in the vessel’s radar system which he attempted to repair as the Aberdeen City headed closer and closer to the land at Start Point. At 1.22am he noticed on the echo sounder that the seabed was shelving rapidly and almost immediately, despite his last minute efforts to avoid her running aground, she stranded on rocks off Start Point.
Aberdeen City aground at Start Point, Sanday
Their distress message was quickly answered and , around 3am, the Stronsay lifeboat John Gellarly Hyndman arrived at the scene and took off nine of the crew. The skipper and three others stayed aboard hoping for a chance to save the vessel. The trawler St Giles, which had also answered the distress call, stood by and eventually tried to pull the Aberdeen City off the rocks but she slipped over with a heavy list to port forcing the remaining four crewmen to abandon ship in their boat to be picked up by the lifeboat. The Liverpool and Glasgow Salvage Association surveyor arrived on Sanday 18th and reported she was awash at high tide and that the prospects of salvage were poor. A further attempt was made to pull her off on October 3rd but when this proved unsuccessful she was declared a total wreck. The position reported of the stranding was 59° 16.733’N, 02° 22.102’W. We have no information on subsequent salvage or if the are any remains of the vessel at the wrecksite.
