Laristan

The steel steamship Laristan was launched from the Sunderland yard of Short Brothers Ltd (Yard No 366) on 21st September 1910. She measured 346.5′ x 50.8′ x 23.3′ and her tonnage was 3675 gross tons, 2269 net tons. She was powered by a triple expansion steam engine by J Dickinson and Sons Ltd delivering 565 nominal horse power. She was built for the Hindustan Steamship Co. Ltd of Newcastle and operated successfully for this company before and throughout the First World War and for the entire inter-war period. With the outbreak of World War Two she was again pressed into service to supply much needed supplies for Britain. Throughout 1939 – 1942 she shuttled back and forth between Britain, France, West Africa and South America, often voyaging alone relying on her powerful engines to allow her to outrun any danger from the patrolling German U-boats.

In January 1942 she joined a convoy, in ballast, departing Southend for Methil and Oban reaching Loch Ewe on 11th January 1942. She then travelled south to Oban to join up with a Transatlantic convoy which had departed from Liverpool bound for Halifax Nova Scotia. When the convoy departed from Oban it was caught in a violent storm which scattered the ships and resulted in five of them running aground at various locations across the Inner and Outer Hebrides. Laristan was one of these unfortunate vessels. She was driven ashore at Rudha Chraiginis, Tiree early in the evening of 19th January. The prospects for salvage of the Laristan were not good. Within an hour of striking the water was over the footplates in the engine room and the pump room was half full. A wireless message the day after she went aground reported water twelve feet deep in holds one, two and three and the ship sitting on a rocky bottom exposed to west and north winds and swell. However the Liverpool and Glasgow Salvage Association were not daunted by the task and rushed to the scene to render assistance.

For the next week they were frustrated by continuing bad weather unable even to board the grounded ship to make an inspection and assess if she was saveable. By February 2nd more gales had driven the wreck even further ashore and hopes began to fade even for the most optimistic would be salvor. However it was probably this final push inshore that saved her. Miraculously she survived the pounding of the sea during the late winter and spring and finally, in July of the same year, on an exceptionally high tide, the salvage team succeeded in refloating her – one of the few ships to survive a winter ashore on the exposed coast of Tiree.