Built for the Clan Line Steamers Ltd the turret design steel steamship Clan Shaw was launched from the Pallion yard of William Doxford and Sons Ltd (Yard No 297) on 10th May 1902. She measured 360.0′ x 48.1′ x 24.5′ and her tonnage was 3943 gross tons, 2503 net tons. She was powered by a triple expansion steam engine by Doxford delivering 394 nominal horse power. The Clan Line was one of the most famous shipping companies and ran dozens of ships on routes spanning the globe. Many of their steamships were requisitioned by the Admiralty during both world wars with no fewer than fifty four of their vessels and hundreds of crewmen lost to enemy action over the two conflicts.
Steamship Clan Shaw alongside
Lloyds register 1915
On 23rd January 1917 the Clan Shaw was nearing the end of a long voyage from Chittagong and Calcutta to Dundee with a full cargo of jute when she was to join the list of ships lost only a few miles from their destination. Her skipper knew that the area off the mouth of the Tay was a continual target for German U-boat mine laying operations but was unaware of the latest operations of UC-29 under the command of Oberleutnant Ernst Rosenow who had laid a number of mines directly opposite the Tay estuary. His ship collided with one of the German mines, killing two of the crew and fatally damaging the Clan Shaw. The captain turned towards the nearest shoreline and attempted to run the vessel ashore to save her. He succeeded in reaching shallower water before the Clan Shaw finally sank allowing the reminder of the crew to be rescued and the vessel to settle upright on a sandbank a few miles offshore with funnels, hull and masts still visible above the surface.
Mine Barrage 40, laid by UC29 sank Clan Shaw
The wreck was buoyed and remained visible for a number of years before it was demolished by explosives as it lay close to the channel leading to the Tay and Dundee. By the outbreak of World War Two Hydrogrpahic charts indicated a minimum depth over the wreckage of five fathoms. The remaining scattered wreckage of the Clan Shaw is reported in position 56° 26.460’N, 002° 38.807’W in 10 metres of water. The wreckage is described in two sections spread over a wide area.
