Rosa Maris

The Rosa Maris was a steel steam trawler built for the Wilberforce Steam Fishing Company of Hull and launched in May 1920 by Cook Welton & Gemmell of Beverley (Yard No.436). Her hull measured 117.4’ x 22.0’ x 12.7’, with tonnage of 237 gross and 92 net. The vessel was powered by a triple expansion steam engine provided by C D Holmes of Hull. Her official number was 144070.

First registered in November 1920 at Hull the Rosa Maris (H248) remained with her first owners until she was sold in 1926 to the Lancashire Steam Fishing Company of Fleetwood and her fishing registry changed to that port as FD43. She remained in this ownership until her loss.

The Rosa Maris was fishing south of Lochboisdale, South Uist on the 17 January 1929 when she ran aground on the Red Rocks, which lie just south of Hartamul Island in the Sound of Eriskay. The crew had just hauled the nets in poor weather conditions when she was caught midships on the reef and held fast. An attempt was made to reverse off the reef by her skipper, William Harrison, but she remained fast. By now it was dark and the sea was breaking over the foredeck as she was down by the head, and she started to heel over to port. The skipper had no choice but to order the crew to launch their lifeboat and abandon ship. This was easier said than done and it took the crew nearly an hour to launch their boat and leave their stricken vessel. They managed to attract the attention of another trawler close by, taken aboard and all twelve crew landed safely Lochboisdale. They were taken in to the small hotel in Lochboisdale for shelter.

The following day messages went south to her owners, who sent their salvage officer to the island on the steam trawler Luneda. Tugs from Glasgow and Aberdeen were also alerted and made passage to the island. All this activity did not help the Rosa Maris as she continued to be ‘pounded’ by the sea and poor weather. A few days after her grounding she was declared a constructive total loss and her registry was closed in March 1929.

We have not been able to establish if the wreck of the Rosa Maris was ever worked, but believe it was dived in 1983 and brass letters were recovered which spelled “ROSA”. The position assigned for this wreck is 57° 04.645’N,  07° 14.036’W which is located on the south side of the Red Rocks reef.

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