The steamship Mira was built in Germany in 1890 for Holm and Molzen in Flensburg at the yard of Flensburger Schiffsbau Gesellschaft (Yard No 109) and was launched on 21st January 1890. She measured 207.6′ x 31.0′ x 14.1′ and her tonnage was 954 gross tons, 598 net tons. She was powered by a triple expansion steam engine by her builders delivering 111 nominal horse power. She was purchased by C H Erlandsen in 1907 for the North Sea trade. Erlandsen renamed the vessel Alfred Erlandsen but her career under her new name and owner was to be a short one.
Lloyd’s register 1909 (Mira)
In October of that same year she was en route from Libau, Latvia to Grangemouth with a cargo of pit props for Messrs Kirkwood of Glasgow. Captain Larsen had a crew of 12 aboard plus his wife as they steamed east towards Scotland. The vessel encountered a severe storm and poor visibility as she reached the Scottish coast and she was driven ashore on Ebb Carr Rocks around eight thirty in the evening of Thursday 17th October, 1907. The ship was hard aground and pounded by a heavy swell and, although her distress signals were quickly spotted and lifeboats launched, little could be done to help the people on board. The lifeboats from Eyemouth and Skatteraw battled for hours in huge seas but failed to reach the site of the wreck before she broke up. Ashore hundreds of locals gathered to try to render assistance and watch the unfolding scene. The Eyemouth Rocket Brigade also reached the location of the wreck but she was too far offshore for the lines to reach. Unfortunately, nothing could be done to save the ship or the men and woman aboard as the ship gradually broke apart. By dawn the only trace of the ship and her crew was the broken wreckage littering the seashore and bobbing in the waves of the receding storm.
The crew – Alfred Erlandsen
The wreckage of the Alfred Erlandsen lies in shallow water near Ebb Carr Rocks, St Abbs in position 55° 53.831’N, 002° 07.494’W (WGS84). The wreckage is very broken due to the exposed nature of the site but her boiler is still visible and recognisable in depths of around 15 metres.
Coldingham Priory graveyard.
