The company that would become the Clan Line was originally founded in Liverpool in 1877 as C. W. Cayzer and Company and became the Clan Line in 1881 with its head office in Hope Street, Glasgow. The Clan Line saw a large number of its ship requisitioned by the British Government during the First and Second World Wars. In fact, the ships became known as the Scots Navy – a nickname derived due to the number of ships in war service and the similarity between the Clan Line’s officers sleeve rings and those of British Naval officers. The Clan Line lost 30 ships in the Second World War.
One of these ships was the Clan Mackinlay. Launched from the Port Glasgow yard of William Hamilton and Co Ltd. on 20th September 1918 as the steamship Dumfries for her original owners J. B. Sutherland and Co Ltd, Newcastle she was immediately acquired by the Clan Line and renamed Clan MacKinlay. She was 6365 gt and 3936 nt and was powered by a triple expansion steam engine built by D. Rowan and Co Ltd, Glasgow. The powerful engines were supplemented by the addition of a Bauer-Wach low pressure exhaust steam turbine fitted by William Beardmore which increased the power to a massive 781nhp. The ship operated on a number of routes between Asia and Europe predominantly on the route from Bombay to London. In fact she was on this route, on 6th November 1940, when she was attacked by a German Heinkel 115 seaplane off Noss Head. The Clan MacKinlay was hit killing five of her crew and sank soon afterwards.
The wreck of the Clan MacKinlay lies in position 58° 32.061’N, 002° 53.095’W (WGS84) in 67 metres of water. The wreck, which is well broken and partially covered in sand, lies oriented 115°/295° and rises around 10 metres from the seabed at its
highest point.
