Kartli

The steel motor vessel  Kartli was launched from VEB Volkswerft, Stralsund (Yard No 7083) in 1966.  She measured 79.81m x 13.24m x 7.01m and her gross tonnage was 1920 tons.  Owned and operated by USSR Yugryba she was one of the fleet of factory ships operating around Scotland supporting the Russian fishing fleet.  Her plight off the west coast of Islay on 18th December 1991 sparked a huge rescue effort which involved an RAF Nimrod plane, four RAF helicopters from Gannet, Lossiemouth and N Ireland, the Royal Navy Fleet Auxiliary vessel Olna, The Royal Navy Auxiliary tug Roysterer, the British tanker Drupa and the Islay lifeboat.  

The Kartli, with fifty one crew aboard under command of Kaptain Vladimir Gayduk, had finished her fishing trip in the fishing grounds west of Shetland and was homeward bound to Bulgaria.  Nine miles off the west coast of Islay she was caught in a violent storm and disabled when a gigantic, freak wave smashed her bridge and flooded her engine room.  Local residents on Islay later described the conditions on the night of the accident as the worst they had seen.  The terrible weather and the strong tides that sweep the west coast of Islay no doubt combined to throw up the massive thirty feet wave which crashed onto the bridge and tore the aluminium structure as if it was paper – three of the crew, including one of the three females aboard, were killed instantly as the structure caved in beneath the huge wave.  A fourth died in hospital in Northern Ireland later.

The ship’s distress flares were first answered by the Drupa which stood by and calmed the crew while help, in the form of the RAF and the Navy, rushed to the scene.  Despite this, six of the crew left the ship in a boat but luckily they were picked up later suffering from hypothermia but alive.  The remaining crew were airlifted to safety by the helicopters to be transferred either to the Olna or directly to hospital in Northern Ireland.

The abandoned ship drifted westward in the continuing gale and, despite efforts by the naval tug Roysterer eventually came ashore on the north west side of Gigha.  For many months there were various stories of impending salvage but the ship gradually broke up and slipped beneath the surface.  In the early days after running ashore she was the subject of some looting, particularly of the electronic goods that the crew had acquired to take home to their eastern Europe homeland.

When the authors first visited the wreck she lay ashore at Port Ban on the north west side of Gigha parallel to the shore, port side towards land with a heavy list to starboard.  Even then her stern was gradually sinking beneath the surface but it was still possible to board her and wander around the hastily abandoned ship.  

However, during the gales of the winter of 1993 the rusting ship finally succumbed to the incessant pounding of the sea and broke up.  Wreckage is no longer visible above water except for a few remnants ashore among the rocks but exploration is now substantially an underwater exercise in depths of up to 5 metres in approximate position 55° 42.221’N, 005° 44.926’W.