Culzean

The 3 masted iron sailing ship Culzean was launched from the Port Glasgow yard of John Reid and Co Ltd (Yard No 4) on 14th November 1871. She measured 254.0′ x 40.0′ x 23.9′ and her tonnage was 1633 gross tons, 1572 net tons. Ordered by J Kerr and Co Ltd of Greenock she operated worldwide for this company until her loss in 1881.

On her final voyage she encountered a series of mishaps during her long voyage from Calcutta to Dundee with a cargo of jute. She sailed from Dundee in the summer of 1881 and was on the return trip when she was caught in a severe gale in the English Channel on October 14th resulting in the loss her masts and other serious damage. She was towed into the Tyne for temporary repairs then on to Dundee where she unloaded her cargo. Her owners then arranged for her to be towed to Greenock for permanent repair. She departed from Dundee under tow by the Clyde Shipping Company tug Conqueror in late November with seventeen crew aboard and a local pilot, Captain Duncan. The decision to take a large sailing ship on such a long trip, under tow, without masts or sails and therefore unable to be controlled if the tow line was lost, was to be the subject of much debate later.

The weather on the trip was atrocious causing them to put into port a number of times. While making the hazardous passage through the Pentland Firth they had to run to Scrabster for shelter. Later, off Cape Wrath, the weather was so bad that the crew feared that she might break up but they made it to Stornoway where they again took refuge from the storms. When the weather moderated they resumed the voyage but were forced  into Tobermory when it deteriorated again. Finally, when the two ships reached the Sound of Jura on the evening of the 21st, another storm swept over them and, after hours of labouring in huge seas as they struggled past Iron Rock, the hawser broke and the Culzean drifted off, helpless, into the night. It was the last that was seen of the ship afloat, Captain Pirnie, his crew and the Dundee pilot Captain Duncan. As the storm lashed the Conqueror through the night Captain Morrison had to fight to save his own ship which he kept in position off the light at Iron Rock, head into the sea, until day break.

At first light they set off in search of the Culzean which they found and reported to be on the Jura coast, at Lang Point,  underwater except for a small portion of her bow section. There was no sign of her crew. Wreckage was strewn along the shoreline and was washed ashore on the mainland coast opposite and on the MacCormaig Isles at the entrance to Loch Sween. The bodies of the crew also washed ashore at various locations around the Sound of Jura over the next few days and weeks.

A more interesting and perhaps accurate location of the site of the wreck comes in a report from the village of Lagg on east coast of Jura reported in the Dundee Advertiser on 2nd December 1881. An extract from the report is included below, which in summary suggests the Culzean came ashore just south of Lagg Point (Rubha a’Chamois).