The steel steamship Treverbyn was launched from the West Yard of John Readhead and Co Ltd., South Shields (Yard No 412) on 9th February 1910. She measured 363.2′ x 51.0′ x 26.1′ and her tonnage was 4163 gross tons, 2642 net tons. She was powered by a triple expansion direct acting inverted steam engine by J Readhead delivering 375 nominal horse power. Built for the Hain Steamship Co Ltd., London she was completed and handed over on 16th March 1910.
Extract Lloyd’s Register 1915.
Steamship Treverbyn under way
On 3rd September 1917 she was inward bound to Manchester from Narvik with a cargo of iron ore. She was under the command of Captain Richard Chissell with a crew of thirty three men. Weeks earlier the German U-boat U-75, under the command of Oberlieutnant Fritz Schmolling, had been on patrol in the Northern Minch. On 10th August, off the Faroes she sank the Norwegian barque Solglimt and then, on 12th August, laid twenty three mines in two barrages across the narrowest stretch of this important seaway with one barrage of sixteen mines across the middle of the channel and a smaller more concentrated barrage seven mines off Ru Ushinish, South Uist. She then proceeded south on her sortie sinking the British steamship Palatine off Canna on the 16th before turning north and heading back to base. This second barrage was to sink Treverbyn. She steamed south hugging the east coast of Uist, presumably to avoid any German mines laid in the middle of the channel but this precaution proved to be a fatal one because, when 2 miles south east of the lighthouse at Ru Ushinish, she collided with one of U-75’s mines and sank in a few minutes after a huge explosion. The captain and twenty six of his men were lost as she went down. The remaining seven crewmen were picked up by a trawler which had been close by and had observed the explosion.
Treverbyn struck a mine in Barrage 153b.
The wreck believed to be the Treverbyn lies in position 57° 17.366’N, 007° 06.539’W oriented 135/315 degrees. She lies in 74 metres with a least depth clearance of 61 metres. We are not aware of any artefact recovered from the wreck that absolutely cofirms her identity but the size of the wreck, the layout of the ship and her position, exactly where U-75 laid her deadly mines, make it almost certain this wreck is the Treverbyn. Video of a dive on the wreck shows a well broken ship covered in silt sitting upright on a muddy seabed.
Memorial plaque for lost crew – Tower Hill, London
