The wooden sailing ship Thomas was built at St.Martins, New Brunswick and launched in 1844 from the yard of Thomas Vaughan. She was registered at Saint Johns, New Brunswick and her tonnage was 765 tons. Her official number was 34834. We have not been able to find a photograph of the Thomas but include a picture of another Canadian ship the Rock City (3 masted, all masts square rigged) to give the reader an idea of her size and general arrangement, which was 172’ in length.
Similar to Thomas – the ship Rock City
The Thomas departed from Greenock for Halifax, Nova Scotia at 7am on 14th August, 1857 under the command of Captain Bell with a general cargo including two disassembled railway locomotives valued at £16000, packed in crates and intended for assembly on arrival and operation for the Nova Scotia Railway Company. She was towed by steam tug as far as the Little Cumbrae then raised her sails to commence her long voyage west across the Atlantic. By midnight she had passed the Mull of Kintyre making good time in a steady moderate breeze. Early the following day the wind died and she wallowed helplessly unable to make headway for all day and most of the next. In the early evening of the 16th she was enveloped in thick fog and started drifting northwards towards Islay. The captain ordered continual soundings but, unaware of the drift north, found nothing to disturb him until, at 10:40pm, the crew heard breakers close to their starboard bow. The helm was put hard over but it was too late. Caught in the fierce tide off the Rhinns of Islay she swept ashore under the lighthouse. Distress guns were fired but the local fishermen at Portnahaven could not find the wreck in the poor visibility. The crew made it safely ashore and later returned to salvage the sails other loose fittings. A week later she was reported to be breaking up and all hope of salving the machinery aboard was abandoned. A few items were recovered with grapples but the exposed nature of the location meant that no serious organised attempt was made to salvage the valuable cargo.
The wreck of the Thomas is Islay’s most unusual wreck. She lies in position 55° 40.249’N, 006° 30.933’W. The wreckage was discovered in 1976 by a local diver named McKinnon and became the target of a series on annual visits by the RAF Sub-Aqua Club and Staines Diving Club who set about excavating the site with the use of explosives to release the artefacts from the concretion in the base of a deep gully. With the discovery of the builder’s plates, the locomotives were revealed to be works numbers 386 and 387 by Messrs Neilson and Co Ltd of Glasgow. These 4-4-0 tender locomotives were built in 1857 to a highly Americanised export design with a driving wheel diameter of five feet. The considerable number of historically important railway artefacts were passed on to the National Railway Museum in York.
The gully, which lies in an inlet just north of the foghorn, is 17 metres deep at the outer end sloping gently to about 12 metres at the inner end and is 4 metres wide narrowing at points to less than 2 metres. The remaining wreckage, concreted into the rock sides and seabed of the gully, with metal items including parts of the railway cargo, can still be seen shining in the rock. The seabed too includes tangled metal among the boulders. The power of the sea in a storm in this narrow inlet can only be imagined but the absorption of the wreckage in the rock itself gives testament to its awesome power. Definitely a site to be avoided in rough weather or heavy swell. 100 metres offshore the rushing tide rip, reaching 10 knots at mid tide, is another potentially dangerous aspect of this site. However in good weather, good underwater visibility and with the exercise of due care the dive is very good. The wreck, the underwater rock formation and the sealife, particularly in the deep rock bowl at the head of the gully, make a memorable combination.
