The steel steamship Glanmire was launched from the Dundee yard of W B Thompson on 2nd November 1887. She measured 242.2′ x 33.2′ x 15.3′ and her tonnage was 1049 gross tons, 466 net tons. She was powered by a triple expansion steam engine by the builders delivering 282 nominal horse power. Ordered by the Cork Steampacket Co Ltd she was first registered in this city on 21sy January 1888. In 1900 she was acquired by J Rankine and Son Ltd, Glasgow and was registered to the Rankine Line Ltd in 1903. She mainly served on the Grangemouth to Amsterdam North Sea route.
She departed for Leith and Grangemouth from Amsterdam with a general cargo in July 1912. The Glanmire sailed this route on a regular basis departing from Grangemouth every Saturday and returning the following week carrying cargo and passengers between the two ports. On this voyage she was skippered by Captain Band and, although he was an experienced navigator and it was not his first voyage on the route, he was later to admit that he was somewhat unfamiliar with the coastal waters of Scotland – a lack of knowledge which was to prove fatal for the steamship. He had a crew of 19 men aboard and only 17 paying passengers despite her 66 first class and 37 steerage berths and a cargo of sugar and other general goods.
In the early hours of the morning of the 25th , as the ship approached the last part of it’s voyage and neared the entrance to the Firth of Forth, she was enveloped in a dense fog dramatically reducing visibility in the early morning light. Without warning the ship ran aground and was holed. The crew immediately launched the ship’s lifeboats and efficiently managed to disembark all the passengers, who had been in the cabin preparing themselves for disembarkation at the moment of impact, before clambering aboard the lifeboats themselves and pushing away from the stranded ship. The captain had clearly lost his bearings in the fog and had run her aground just north of St Abbs Head. As the passengers and crew pulled clear of the wreck she floated off the rocks and foundered within an hour of striking leaving her partially submerged and clearly a total wreck. The distress signals from the ship had been spotted by local inhabitants and, despite a problem with the local lifeboat, a number of fishing boats were manned and rushed to the scene to guided the ship’s lifeboats with the passengers and crew aboard through the narrow to the harbour at St Abbs.
The Glanmire later floated off the rocks and drifted out to sea on the rising tide where she foundered and became a total loss. The wreck of the Glanmire lies in position 55°55.228’N, 002°08.242’W oriented 039°/219° with seabed depths around 27 metres.
The wreck is well broken but is a very popular dive lying across a gently sloping seabed on its port side. The boilers and engine are still clearly visible and the bow section the most ship like portion of the remaining wreckage which is strewn over a wide area. At the stern end of the wreck the rudder and propeller are also still visible. The wreckage is covered in colourful sealife making it a favourite destination for underwater photographers.
We would like to thank Nicola Faulks for her permission to use her underwater photographs of the wreck in this article