Gareloch

Launched from Smith’s Dockyard Co Ltd in North Shields (Yard No 394) on 24th September 1908 the steel steam trawler Lily Melling measured 125.6′ x 22.1′ x 12.2′ and her tonnage was 246 gross tons, 96 net tons. She was powered by a triple expansion steam engine by Shields Engineering Co Ltd. delivering 85 nominal horse power.

She was initially owned by the Melling Steam Trawling Company of Fleetwood with fishing number FD222. Requisitioned for minesweeping duties early in World War One she was fitted with a 6 pounder gun. She survived the war and was returned to her owners who immediately sold her to Thomas Kelsall of Fleetwood and registered to Selby Trawlers Ltd in 1920. In 1929 she ran aground in the Sound of Islay and was nearly lost but she was eventually raised and repaired and purchased by William Gove of Aberdeen in 1933, renamed Gareloch and registered in Aberdeen with fishing number A276.

The Gareloch departed from Aberdeen around 9:30am on the 17th August 1935 bound for Methil with a crew of five under the command of her skipper William Wright. The weather was fine and clear and the voyage went smoothly arriving at Methil about 5pm the same day. Here her bunkers were filled with coal and they set off on the return journey at 5am on the 18th. A course was set to pass Elie Ness which they reached before 6am. Almost immediately they ran into a dense bank of fog. Despite the earlier sighting of Elie Ness only a mile or so from their starboard beam the skipper maintained full speed despite the reduced visibility and less than thirty minutes later, despite a last minute shout of ‘land ahead’ from the lookout and a desperate attempt by the skipper to run over the rocks at full speed, the Gareloch stranded on a rocky outcrop off Anstruther swimming pool.

As the tide was ebbing the vessel was soon high and dry making an easy safe escape for the crew but the Gareloch was to become a total wreck. She was salvaged where she lay. The subsequent enquiry blamed the skipper for not taking a more accurate assessment of his position when off Elie Ness and for not slowing in the reduced visibility of the fog they encountered.

Wreckage believed to be from the Gareloch lies in the intertidal zone just west of Anstruther harbour in a position estimated as 56° 12.878’N, 02° 42.211’W.  The most obvious item of wreckage is a large steam boiler.

We would like to thank Lloyd’s Register Foundation – Heritage & Education Centre for allowing us to reproduce documents from their archive in this article.