Luneda

The steel steam trawler Luneda was launched from the Selby yard of Cochrane and Sons Ltd (Yard No 539) on 14th September 1912.  She 130.0′ x 23.0′ x 12.7′ and her tonnage was 288 gross tons, 116 net tons.  She was powered by a 3 cylinder triple expansion steam engine by C D Holmes and Co Ltd., Hull delivering 65 registered horse power.  

Built for the Lancashire Steam Fishing Co Ltd, Fleetwood she was only in service two years before she was requisitioned by the Admiralty for war service as minesweeper No 926.  Two years after the end of the war in June 1920 she was purchased by J  Marr and Sons Ltd., Fleetwood continuing to operate from this north west port registered FD230.

If the crew of Luneda had been a superstitious group they would probably have chosen not to sail together. Between them they had experienced an incredible sixteen shipwrecks.  The chief engineer James Wilson had himself been wrecked nine times previously, the bosun had been on five other wrecked ships while two other members of the crew had each been wrecked once.  Add to this the fact that the Luneda herself had been ashore and badly damaged fourteen months earlier in the Faroes and you would think that they were bound to run into trouble again.

None of this amazing history was in the crew’s minds as they left Fleetwood on Monday 8th February, 1937 bound for the Faroe fishing grounds.  In the early hours of the morning the following day they were caught in a heavy snow storm which reduced the visibility to almost nil.  The skipper, Richard Snape, was on deck with two of his twelve man crew and had just sent deck hand Charles Emery below to call the next watch when they suddenly ran hard aground on rocks near Ardbeg.  The ship shuddered to a halt and, despite their efforts to get her off using the ship’s engines, she remained fast.  Eventually she listed alarmingly causing the skipper to order the ship’s boat to be launched.  The noise of the hull grinding and tearing on the sharp rocks rang in the crew’s ears as they quickly got into the boat and drifted away from their doomed ship.  By now the snow was falling so heavily that they had no choice but to drift until daylight to try to get some idea of where they were.  They were to spend four cold, uncomfortable hours in the open boat before help arrived.  Even when the snow abated and they could see that they were off of Ardbeg they were afraid to try to make for the shore due to the many hidden dangerous reefs that lie of this part of the coast.

As dawn broke the skipper of the steam lighter Pibroch noticed the wreck lying jammed on the rocks and steamed to the rescue.  When he reached the Luneda and found that it was deserted he immediately began a search for the crew and luckily spotted the frozen crew in their boat some distance out to sea shortly afterwards.  They were landed safely at Port Ellen but their ship became a total wreck.  

The wreck of the Luneda lies on a small reef called Sgeir Bratach which is marked but not named on the chart of the area.  The position is 55° 37.488’N, 006° 05.644’W (GPS).  The wreckage lies in a narrow gully between two rocky outcrops which almost break the surface two hundred yards west of the reef called Iomallach which is charted and is visible at all states of the tide. The wreck is well broken but is an interesting dive.  

As is common with wrecks in the area the most recognisable feature is the large boiler which lies half way along the gully.  The bow of the ship faces east and is located at around 10 metres with the rest of the wreckage strewn along the rocky gully to the stern, with propeller in place, at 8 metres at the other end.  The site is not subject to any tidal flow but can be very exposed to a heavy swell when the wind is from the south or east.

We would like to thank Lloyd’s Register Foundation – Heritage & Education Centre for allowing us to reproduce documents from their archive in this article.