The steel steamship Scarsdale was launched from the Stockton-on-Tees yard of Richardson Duck and Co Ltd (Yard No 549) on 27th April 1903. She measured 290.5′ x 42.1′ x 19.7′ and her tonnage was 2099 gross tons, 1343 net tons. She was powered by a triple expansion steam engine by Blair and Co Ltd., Stockton-on-Tees delivering 213 nominal horse power.
Extract from Lloyd’s Register 1915.
Built for the Dale Steamship Company Ltd of Stockton she operated for this company until she was sold to Mr J Gaff of Glasgow in 1912. He renamed her Leonatus. In 1915 she was sold again to the Crossburn Steamship Co Ltd (Clark and Service), Glasgow. At the beginning of World War One she was fitted with a defensive deck gun but continued to operate on her usual routes around the British coastline.
Steamship Leonatus
On the morning of 12th December 1917 Leonatus arrived off Lerwick with a cargo of coal from Swansea. She was to join the latest small convoy of coal carrying ships heading for Norway. Throughout the war ships from Britain had provided a steady flow of vital coal to our allies in Norway and, despite the growing list of casualties, dozens of vessels crossed back and forth across the North Sea. By 1917 the ships had begun to travel in small escorted convoys but, despite this precaution, the losses continued with the approaches to Lerwick heavily targeted by the German U-boat fleet. The German mine laying U-boat UC-40 was the latest to patrol the area under the command of Kapitanlieutnant Hermann Menzel. He laid a series of seven mines south east of Bressay on 7th December and a further six mines on 11th December in the same area. The British minesweeping fleet was planned to sweep the channel that morning before Leonatus entered the port but, at 9:20am as she drifted two miles south of Bard Head under the command of Captain James Fenton, she was rocked by a huge explosion. There is some confusion in the records with some sources reporting that she was torpedoed and others that she collided with one of UC-40’s recently laid mines. Certainly the position of the minefield and the current position of the wreck would indicate that the likely cause was indeed a collision with a floating mine. In either case, the huge explosion aft of her well deck instantly killed two of her crew and left her without power, dead in the water and down by the bow. Captain Fenton immediately ordered the remaining crew to the boats to be picked up by HM whalers Balaena and Beluga.
Leonatus probably struck mine barrage 187.
With the crew safe aboard the rescue vessels, Beluga then attempted to tow the crippled but still floating Leonatus stem first towards Lerwick but the tow line almost immediately snapped. At 10:20am, one hour after the explosion, the tug Peewit reached the scene and with the help of the salvage officer, the Chief Petty Officer and two of the crew of the Beluga who had managed to board Leonatus, succeeded in attaching tow lines to Peewit and a second vessel and began a slow tow towards safety. However, by 11:30 as they passed Bard Head, the Leonatus was clearly sinking so, at 11:45, Peewit dropped the tow and ten minutes later Leonatus sank. Three of the four men who had boarded Leonatus jumped clear before she went down but sadly the Chief Petty Officer went down with the ship.
The wreck of the Leonatus lies in position 60° 06.343’N, 001° 06.189’W in 57 metres with a least depth clearance of 49 metres. She is reported to be sitting upright in two major sections and was positively identified by the recovery of the ship’s bell inscribed ‘Scarsdale’ The large cast propeller is clearly visible at the stern and the large defensive stern gun also apparent amid the wreckage towards the rear of the ship.
