The steel motor vessel Kathe Niederkirchner was launched from the yard of Warnowwerft Warnemunde, East Germany (Yard No 515) on 22nd February 1965. She measured 466.5′ x 61.0′ x 23.7′ and her tonnage was 8003 gross tons. She was powered by a diesel engine by VEB Dieselmotorenwerke, Rostock delivering 5850 brake horse power. The ship was named after a German communist resistance activist who was shot by the Germans in September 1944 in Ravensburck concentration camp. The Kathe Niederkirchner was owned and operated by VEB Deutche Seereederi, Rostock.
Kathe Niederkirchner at anchor
On 23rd August 1965 she was en route from Havana to Rostock with a cargo of 10000 tons of sugar. She had a crew of fifty aboard including nine wives of crewmen, and two passengers when she ran aground in fog on Muckle Skerry, Pentland Firth. The details of the stranding are vague as the crew were subject to the communication restrictions of the East German authorities of the Cold War era but the combination of fog and the fast flowing tides of the Pentland Firth make any navigation through this narrow channel extremely hazardous. The passengers and crew were able to disembark in the ship’s motor boats and, with the assistance of one of the lighthouse keepers, landed beneath the lighthouse. They were later taken to Kirkwall to start their journey home.
Two hours after she stranded a report indicated that, at the 10am high tide, she was lying with a heavy list to port with her decks awash and only the forecastle, bridge and funnel visible. A few hours later she had disappeared sinking beneath the surface with the falling tide. In an interesting sub plot to the loss to the ship newspaper reports at the time, somewhat sensationally, mentioned attempts by some locals to illegally grapple and steal two of the ship’s valuable lifeboats from an official vessel which had been towing them clear of the wreck.
