Lustring

The wooden steam drifter Lustring was launched from the Banff yard of Stevenson and Asher in April 1910.  She measured 83.7′ x 18.8′ x 8.2′ and her tonnage was 71 gross tons, 30 net tons. She was powered by a 2 cylinder compound steam engine by McKie & Baxter, Copland Works, Govan delivering 30 nominal horse power.  She was ordered by Mr James Wilson of Banff who registered her in this port BF195 on 13th June 1910.  Her official number was  127312.

In January 1918 she was requisitioned by the Admiralty for war service and stationed in Scapa Flow where she acted as a boom net barrier tender.  She survived the majority of the war but, only just over a month from the end of the conflict, she was to become a victim of a naval accident rather than any enemy action.  On 3rd October 1918 she was operating on the barrier defending Kirkwall with James Wilson himself in charge.  At 7:30pm that evening she was involved in a collision with H M Trawler Elvina (GY238) off Hellier Holm and fatally damaged.  Thankfully the crew were able to escape safely before she went down.  The subsequent Admiralty inquiry concluded  ” the chief skipper of ”Elvina” (William Wood RNR) did not exhibit due care on approaching the ”Lustring” , and his lack of caution in closing a vessel which appeared to him to be manoeuvering was solely the cause of the collision and his final order prior to the collision to be unjustifiable in as much as he put the helm hard a’ port knowing ”Lustring was crossing port to starboard”

The wreckage of Lustring was the target of research and then underwater investigation by Sula Diving in May 2021 who discovered scattered wreckage of a wooden steam vessel which, after some detailed measurement were taken, was confirmed as the wreckage of Lustring (for more detail of wreck and research carried out visit HMD LUSTRING ).  The wreckage is spread over a wide area with three main targets identified in the side can sonar view of the area.  These comprise of the boiler, the engine and then main wreckage site spread across a distance of more than 150 metres. This spread of wreckage was caused by a strong tidal flow that was running at the time of the accident.  The boiler lies in position 59 00.832N, 02 53.030W, the central wreckage lies in position 59 00.840N, 02 52.897W and the engine lies in position 59 00.834N, 02 52.949W in roughly 23 metres.

We’d like to thank Kevin Heath and Sula Diving for their permission to include photographs and sidescan details of the wreck in this article.  Further details of the vessel and the survey to locate and identify her can be found at www.lostinwatersdeep.co.uk.