Scottish Shipwrecks

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Loss of the Norval

20th December 2015 By Peter Moir 2 Comments

Norval

Norval – site map

145 years ago today the Greenock registered sailing ship Norval was wrecked on the south point of Insh Island around 10 miles south of Oban. The wooden ship was inbound for Glasgow from Montreal with a cargo of deals, battens and staves. The weatherwas thick with poor visibility and and a westerly swell. The vessel had gone ashore on the west side of the southern point of the island, being held on the rocks by a shallow reef that runs parallel to the shore. Efforts to salvage her cargo over the following weeks proved fruitless, and she eventually broke up from the relentless pounding of the westerly swell.

Norval 014

Underwater terrain

What remains of the wreck is concreted into a series of gulleys between a reef and the shore. The somewhat grainy image was taken in 2002 and shows the typical underwater terrain of kelp covered rock, with encrusting bright yellow sponges and anemones fixed to the kelp stalks. On our dive we found the remains of a few small iron cannon, spars and a larger piece of timber that could have been a section of main mast and a good length of rectangular shaped anchor chain.

More details on the loss of this fine vessel can be found in Argyll Shipwrecks on age 148, happy reading.

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Comments

  1. Carrick Hewitson says

    28th September 2020 at 15:26

    Hi
    Kayaked past this location 27 September 2020.
    From the painting (found in other Posts in reference to the ships name) of the vessel, what looks like the rectangular metallic construction Appearing near the foremast can still be seen resting on the rocks at the location.
    Intensely interesting story to follow up on.

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Dancing Around The Mast – bagpie.net says:
    5th January 2023 at 10:17

    […] roof. The column is formed from a ships mast, generally agreed to be from the 630 ton sailing ship Norval which went down at the southern tip of Inish Island in December 1870. The massive rafters are […]

    Reply

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Book Sales

Argyll Shipwrecks records the loss of around four hundred ships along the west coast of Scotland, from Kintyre to Mull. Stories of courage and rescue are enhanced with old photographs and detailed charts recording where to find and dive on the wrecks. The book is a unique catalogue of shipping history of the area and its legacy of shipwrecks. Buy this book here

Clyde Shipwrecks records the loss of around three hundred and fifty ships along the Clyde estuary in south west Scotland. Stories of courage and rescue are enhanced with old photographs and detailed charts recording where to find and dive on the wrecks. The book is a unique catalogue of shipping history of the area and its legacy of shipwrecks. Buy this book here

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