Magne

The steel steamship Magne was launched from the yard of Helsingor Jernskips og Maskinbyggeri A/S (Yard No 136) on 15th September 1912. She measured 246.9′ x 37.1 x 14.0′ and her tonnage was 1226 gross tons, 558 net tons. She was powered by a triple expansion steam engine by Helsingor Jernskips delivering 900 ihp. She was ordered by Stockholms Rederi A/B Svea destined for operations on the North Sea routes particularly between Sweden and England. In the early years of World War One she continued to operate on these routes but in 1917, with German U-boat attacks at their peak, she was requisitioned by the Admiralty for wartime use. After the war she was returned to her Swedish owners. Her inter-war career was interspersed with various collision incidents but none of these were to cause serious damage. With the outbreak of World War Two she was chartered to the Ministry of War Transport and began her wartime voyages when she was handed over on 16th July 1940. She was a very active ship with multiple voyages around the North Sea and UK ports, Portugal and the western Mediterranean and even a Transatlantic trip to Halifax and Sydney, Nova Scotia.

On 28th February 1945 she departed from Liverpool with a general cargo under the command of Captain Valentin Eriksson with a crew of twenty men aboard. She was bound for London but forced to take a route round the north of Scotland rather than the shorter but much more dangerous route through the English Channel. She passed Dunnet Head on 4th March and reached Aberdeen the following day. As she entered Aberdeen harbour she collided with the harbour wall and badly damaged her stem. After some temporary repairs, she steamed south to Dundee on the 9th where she remained until she set out on the next stage of her trip reaching Methil on 13th. She departed from Methil on the morning of the 14th to continue her trip down the British North Sea coast.

Meanwhile the German U-boat U-714 had reached her patrol area off St Abbs Head under the command of Kapitanleutnant Hans-Joachim Schwebcke. On 10th March they sank the steam trawler Nordhav II off the Tay and now they lay in wait for a second victim. The details of the attack by the submarine are not known as U-714 herself was lost nearby with the loss of everyone aboard soon after they sank Magne. U-714 fired a single torpedo which hit Magne near her stern with devastating effect. The crew were mainly in their quarters and the captain was in his bathtub in his cabin. The explosion killed ten of the crew but thankfully the survivors, including the captain, were able to launch the starboard lifeboat as the ship took on a heavy list to that side. They began to row the boat towards land but were picked up by a small British tanker one hour later.

The wreck believed to be Magne lies in position 55 50.782 N, 001 53.709 W oriented 150/330 degrees. She lies in 62 metres and has a charted least depth of 46 metres. The wreck is upright and substantially in tact. We are not aware of any finds on the wreck that have confirmed her identity but the location and dimensions of the wreck would strongly suggest this is Magne.

We’d like to thank Peter Baker for his permission to use his underwater photographs on the wreck in this article.