The Edenballymore was a full rigged sailing vessel of 1726 gross tons and was built for her original owners, Thomas Dickie and Co Ltd of Glasgow, by Russell & Company Limited of Greenock and launched in March 1890. Her measurements were 260.6′ x 38.2′ x 23.0’and she was the 224th vessel to be launched by the yard. She and sold to The Edenmore Company of Greenock in 1900.
The ship, renamed Edenmore, loaded a general cargo at Hamburg and cast off on her voyage to Sydney, Australia around 5:30am on 3rd October 1909. In command was David Jackson, an experienced skipper, who was on his first trip in charge of the Edenmore. He had a crew of twenty five men aboard. The ship was towed from the harbour down river and into the open sea where the tug cast off the tow at 4:24pm. Captain Jackson’s original intention was to sail through the English Channel before turning south to head down the west coast of Africa. However, as they set off they found themselves in a strong south westerly gale which made this heading impossible so Jackson decided to take the northerly route round the top of Scotland before heading south. For four days the gale blew but they made steady headway north towards Fair Isle intending to pass between Fair Isle and the north tip of Orkney rather than risk the strong tides of the Pentland Firth.
By 3pm on the 7th the gale, rather than abating was stronger forcing the captain to order much of the sails on his ship to be furled and stored to avoid damage. By this time the visibility was also severely reduced as the crew struggled to stow the sails in the increasing gales. Suddenly, as the ship lost headway, she struck rocks at her stern and then drifted ashore. She had run aground on the small island of Papa Stronsay, one of the more northerly of the Orkney Islands. Thankfully the site of her stranding was fairly sheltered and the ship came to rest in a reasonably safe position. After firing a number of distress rockets the crew remained aboard the stranded ship until 3am the next morning when a boat from Stronsay came alongside. The Edenmore’s boats were launched, the crew safely boarded them and they were guided ashore by the local boat.
Although the site was fairly exposed it was hoped that she could be successfully re-floated and the East Coast Salvage vessel the Compan was engaged to attempt this. By the time their representative, Mr Armitt, arrived on the scene a couple of days later the ship had already lost her rudder and some of her holds were awash. On the arrival of the salvage ship it was intended to remove her cargo but this was delayed when the Compan ran aground temporarily on the voyage north but, on October 11th , removal of the cargo began. This operation went well and a good part of the cargo was removed before a further gale arrived in the area and the Edenmore broke up spilling what was left of her cargo into the sea.
The Edenmore ashore on Papa Stronsay.
The fortunate crew of the Edenmore.
