Madame Alice

The steel cargo steamship Bay Fisher was launched by the Dublin Dockyard Company in October 1904 for James Fisher & Son of Barrow in Furness. She measured 168.7′ x 25.8′ x 10.4′ and her tonnage was 478 gross tons, 195 net tons. She was powered by a 2 cylinder compound steam engine supplied by Renfrew Brothers of Irvine delivering 72 registered horse power. Fisher sold the vessel to T G Beatley and Son, London  in 1917 who re-named her Madame Alice. The vessel’s official number was 114228.

Fisher also owned a vessel called the Sound Fisher built in 1894, the general arrangement and dimensions were virtually identical for both vessels so the picture below of the Causeway (ex Sound Fisher) will give you a good idea of what she looked like.

As with many vessels lost during the wars, there are few details relating to the incident resulting in the loss of the Madame Alice in the historical record.  She was lost on the 16th February, 1918 on a voyage from Fleetwood to Stornoway with a cargo of empty barrels and seventeen crew aboard.  She sank after a collision near Oban with the steam yacht Iolaire, which was on Admiralty duty at the time.  The crew of the Madame Alice made it safely to the shore.  The Iolaire, whilst badly damaged, survived the collision but was tragically lost less than a year later, when she ran aground on the Beasts of Holm near Stornoway with the loss of over two hundred lives. 

The wreck of the Madame Alice lies in 40 – 42 metres in the Firth of Lorne approximately a mile offshore from Ganavan Sands in position 56° 27.233’N, 005° 29.483’W.  She sits almost upright with a slight list to starboard on a muddy seabed with her bow heading south west. 

The wreck is fairly intact although the superstructure in the bridge area has fallen inwards on itself and the stern is smashed and disappears into the seabed.  This latter damage is presumably the result of the collision that caused the loss of the vessel as the rest of the hull appears to be in tact.  The stern is covered extensively by fishing nets and so great care must be taken, particularly as the muddy seabed and the silt that covers the wreckage, deposited by the tides rushing through the Falls of Lora from Loch Etive, quickly reduces visibility as the diver swims past. 

Forward of the bridge the large single hold is filled with silt.  Huge sea pens cover the seabed around the wreck but otherwise the wreck itself is not covered with the same profusion of encrusting life that would normally be associated with such a wreck.  Apart from the depth and the fishing nets their are no great hazards on this dive but clearly it is not for the inexperienced diver.  She lies more or less on the route of the Lismore ferry from Oban so watch out for it but otherwise surface traffic in the area is reasonably light.

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

We would also like to thanks Naomi Watson for her permission to use her underwater photographs of the wreck.