The steel steamship St Clement was launched from the Aberdeen yard of Hall Russell and Co Ltd (Yard No 695) on 3rd May 1928. She measured 156.3′ x 25.6′ x 9.8′ and her tonnage was 450 gross tons, 175 net tons. She was powered by a triple expansion steam engine by Hall Russell delivering 68 registered horse power. Owned by the North of Scotland , Orkney and Shetland Steam Navigation Co Ltd she was based in Aberdeen and served mainly on the route from Aberdeen to the Northern Isles. On 18th October 1928 she ran aground at Saltwick, Yell but on this occasion she was safely refloated, repaired and returned to service.
SS St Clement under way.
Lloyd’s register 1939
With the outbreak of World War Two St Clement’s regular voyages along the Scottish east coast became much more dangerous but, nonetheless, she continued to shuttle back and forth delivering much needed provisions for the inhabitants of Orkney and Shetland. She had two deck guns and a Holman Projector fitted to give her some self protection capability and carried a Royal Naval gunner as a standard member of her wartime crew. On 5th April 1941 she was inward bound to Aberdeen from Kirkwall with a general cargo and a number of livestock aboard under the command of Captain W G Stout who had a crew of ten men aboard. Initially she was planned to travel as part of a small coastal convoy but due to bad weather and poor visibility they couldn’t locate the convoy. She was steaming south accompanied by three steam trawlers. At 8:30pm, when they were off the mouth of the River Ythan, Captain Stout saw flashes of gunfire in the distance. He then spotted a plane flying from the east towards them. The plane, identified as a two engine German bomber, descended to around 100 feet as it approached. The gunner aboard St Clement opened fire as the plane came within range but her attack run resulted in two almost simultaneous explosion near the port bow of St Clement. The explosions caused the vessel to list to port, the gun platform and guns collapsed and steam began pouring from the engine room. Thankfully all the crew were on deck at the time she was hit and quickly launched the ship’s boats. Unfortunately the chief engineer Gordon Cruickshank was lost during the evacuation. The remaining ten crew members escaped in the ship’s boats before the St Clement sank in a position reported as five miles off the mouth of the River Ythan.
Profile plan of St Clement
The wreck in position 57° 16.901.N, 01° 51.858’W was dived by Buchan Divers in 2010 who found a steel steamship sitting upright with sever damage to her port bow consistent with a hot from a German bomb. The configuration of the vessel and it’s position off Ythan (the other wrecks in the area have already been positively identified) more or less confirm her identity although nothing has been recovered as yet that positively confirms this is indeed St Clement. She lies in 55 metres rising 5 metres from the seabed oriented 170/350 degrees.
We would like to acknowledge the assistance of Buchan Divers – www.buchandivers.com in the preparation of this article.
We would also like to thank Lloyd’s Register Foundation – Heritage & Education Centre for allowing us to reproduce documents from their archive in this article.
