Ingrid

Laid down in 1919 as the SS Lake Flomaton this vessel was launched as the Great Falls on 10th November 1919 by her builders McDougall Duluth & Co., of Duluth, Minnesota (Yard No.1863). She had been built as part of the US Shipping Board’s 1917-1921 Emergency Fleet Programme and was built to their standard design 1099.  She was owned by A/S I.A.Hamres Rederi and registered in Oslo.  

She had many owners and names during her 22 year career – Haiti (21-26), Columbian (26-28), Ocean Dominion (28-34), American Caribbean (34-36), and finally, under Norwegian ownership, Ingrid (1936-42). She measured 251.0′ x 43.7′ x 25.8′ and her tonnage was 2607 gross tons. Propulsion was provided by a triple expansion steam engine delivering 226 nominal horse power supplied by her builders.

As the war in Europe intensified Ingrid was operating mainly on the eastern seaboard of the United States ferrying small cargoes to the ports where larger cargo ships were assembling to cross the Northern Atlantic in larger and larger convoys bringing supplies to Europe and the UK.  In August 1941 she made her first transatlantic voyage since the outbreak of war and then, in November 1941 she again crossed from Sydney, Nova Scotia to Southend arriving there on December 5th 1941.  On 15th December she set sail again, in sand and water ballast, under the command of Captain Johannes Thorbjornsen, heading to Newcastle and on to Methil on the first legs of a trip intended to take her to Hampton Roads and finally to Cuba. On 9th January she departed from Methil in coastal convoy EN30 heading for the convoy assembly point at Loch Ewe.  She reached Loch Ewe on 11th January then headed south to join a larger convoy, ON57, which had departed from Liverpool on January 13th before heading west across the Atlantic.   As this convoy assembled a violent storm reached the west coast of Scotland forcing the vessels to lay up and await calmer conditions.  The storm scattered the ships of the convoy across the islands of the Hebrides causing no fewer than five vessels to run aground ( Empire Homer, Laristan, R J Cullen, Eugene S Embiricos, Ingrid – for details of the other vessels see else where on this website) At a subsequent enquiry Captain Thorbjornsen testified that, in terrible weather with gale force winds and almost zero visibility his ship was driven before the wind and then, compounded by strong tidal flows, they were swept onto rocks off Rubha Port Bhoisd, Tiree on 19th January.  Indeed his first SOS message indicated they had stranded close to Barra Head and, after a second transmission stating that the crew were planning to take to the boats, it was only when they reached the shore did they find out that they were in fact on Tiree, not Barra. 

Reports over the next few days advised that the ship was breaking up in the terrible weather.  When she was finally boarded on February 2nd the sea was reported to be boiling through her bottom, the engine room tidal and her rudder and propeller gone.  Salvage was hopeless and she was abandoned as a total wreck.

The Ingrid was heavily salvaged and has been further pounded by the swell at this exposed site.  Her remains lie in shallow water at Sgeir Mhor in position 56°32.046’N, 006°55.898’W (GPS).  The seabed here is around 6 metres and the wreckage is spread over a wide area with her boiler in the centre of the site.  As the wreck is shallow it is heavily overgrown with kelp and subject to heavy swell when the wind is from the west.  In calm conditions it is a pleasant shallow dive with lots of gullies and crevices to explore.