The steel motor vessel Kondor was Launched from the VEB Volkswerft yard in Stralsund, Germany on 6th September 1969. She measured 82.02m x 13.64m x 5.2m and her tonnage was 2654 gross tons, 1115 net tons. Constructed as a fish factory ship she operated in the waters around Scotland and Iceland catching and processing fish caught by the Eastern European fishing fleets – one of a large fleet of so called ‘Klondykers’ which often drew controversy with their Eastern European crews secrecy and lack of interaction with the other vessels plying the same waters. These vessels, often aging and over used, also caused safety and environmental concerns across their area of operations . She was owned and registered in Varna, Bulgaria by Okeansky Ribilov.
Kondor’s sister ship Ralida
In April 1990 Kondor was operating in the waters of the Minch under the command of her captain, Georgi Karanov with a crew of 27 men aboard. At around 2am on 25th April she ran aground on Sgeir Graidach, a rocky outcrop off the north west of Skye. As the tide rose, around 7am, she eventually floated off but the vessel was seriously damaged. A local clam dredger, the 60′ Agate skippered by Stornoway fisherman Donald Morrison, had arrived in answer to the Kondor’s distress calls had managed to get a tow line aboard the Kondor intent on towing the ship to Stornoway and claiming salvage rights. A second Klondyker, the Ophelia, also arrived on the scene and a heated argument ensued with the Ophelia’s skipper ordering Morrison to drop his tow to allow them to take up the tow instead. Morrison refused as this would almost certainly lose him any salvage claim. Meanwhile, the Stornoway lifeboat and a Coastguard Helicopter had also arrived in answer to the earlier distress calls. The lifeboat took off four young cadets from the Kondor but initially Captain Karanov and the rest of the crew stayed on board. As Morrison in the Agate began to tow north, following an almost five hour delay while the arguments about the tow had gone back and forth, hopes were high that they could bring the Kondor to Stornoway. However, the delay was to prove fatal. As the ships moved slowly north, passing close to the Shiant Isles, and with deteriorating weather, it became clear that the men aboard Kondor were in increasing danger and eventually Karanov agreed to abandon ship. His men were taken aboard the lifeboat and conveyed safely to Stornoway. Morrison continued to head north but, around 5pm, when some fourteen miles south of Stornoway, it was clear that she was about to sink. Morrison dropped the tow line and Kondor sank beneath the waves.
Kondor plunges to the seabed bow first
The wreck in position 58° 02.370’N, 06° 18.420’W is believed to be Kondor. She lies in 115 metres with a least depth of 86 metres oriented 110/290 degrees. The 2011 survey records that the bow of the wreck rises at a steep angle from the seabed which accounts for the rather unusual dimensions reported in the survey.
