The iron steamship Nessmore was launched from the yard of Barrow Shipbuilding Co Ltd (Yard No 96) on 20th May 1882. She measured 340.0′ x 40.4′ x 24.2′ and her tonnage was 3377 gross tons, 2216 net tons. She was powered by a 2 cylinder compound steam engine by Barrow Shipbuilding delivering registered 300 horse power. Built for the SS Nessmore Company (William Johnson) Ltd., Barrow she operated from this port for her entire career.
Extract Lloyd’s Register 1894.
It is difficult to imagine how a large steamship en route from Montreal to Liverpool could end up wrecked on the east side of Coll in Crossapol Bay but that is exactly what happened to the Nessmore on the 20th November, 1895. She had sailed from Montreal on November 6th with a general cargo and 520 cattle aboard. The captain, Amos Hawkett, commanded a crew of thirty six and he also had nineteen cattlemen aboard to take care of the livestock on the voyage
The trip went badly, as they ran into a series of gales crossing the Atlantic. He was forced to change his intended route round the north of Ireland to the longer trip round the south then, on the 18th, back again as yet another storm, this time with hurricane force from the south east, battered his ship. He ran north before the wind to give his crew and the terrified cattle some respite from the incessant pounding of the gigantic waves but tragically, due to the dreadful weather, he began to lose track of the exact location of his ship. The next day the log showed that they had travelled 162 miles but, of course, this could not take into account accurately the extra distance covered as a result of the extra impetus of the driving wind.
Over the next twenty four hours, the captain attempted to navigate his ship in terrible conditions with driving rain and very limited visibility. At one point they had a brief glimpse the flashing light of a lighthouse. They believed they were somewhere off the north west of Ireland and concluded that the light was Fanad Point Light but they were badly out in their reckoning and it seems likely that it was, in fact, Dubh Artach. With lead soundings being made every few minutes, the captain continued to steer the ship believing he was off north west Ireland and, when land was sighted two miles off the starboard bow, he turned north west to head for deeper water and intending to wait out the storm. The soundings confirmed that the water was indeed getting deeper and he eventually ordered engines stopped thinking that he would drift safely north west into the Atlantic until he could get some visibility to see where he was headed. The night was so dark and the visibility so poor that it was impossible even to judge exactly in which direction they were drifting. At 10pm on the evening of the 20th, the seabed suddenly shoaled and Captain Hawkett ordered engines started and he again steered a course towards the north west expecting this would take him into deeper water but, almost immediately, breakers were spotted ahead and shortly afterwards, despite reversing engines, the ship ran gently aground. The engines were kept in reverse for a few minutes but this only succeeded in pulling the stern round until the propeller fouled on the submerged rocks and was smashed to pieces. Within an hour there was ten feet of water in the holds and the ship was doomed.
The remaining wreckage of the Nessmore lies among the shallow reefs east of Eilean Bhoramuil in position 56° 33.528’N, 006° 41.473’W (GPS). The exact location is on the east side of a rock which is charted as drying at 1.7 metres. Very little remains due to heavy salvage activity. The remaining plates and girders lie along the side of the reef half buried in the white sand in around 6 metres. The site is very sheltered except from a south east direction.
