Wrecking

[earlofzetland]

Did anyone see the Timewatch programme on wrecking last night? It debated whether the deliberate luring of ships onto the rocks to plunder cargo actually took place.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/page/item/b008pyps.shtml?q=timewatch&start=1&scope=iplayersearch&go=Find+Programmes&version_pid=b008pyp8

 

It had a section on the Northern Isles and mentioned Walter Scott's account from Unst (allegedly) where a man cut the rope from some shipwrecked sailors scaling the cliffs as he feared they would consume all their winter supplies.

 

Does anyone know any good shipwreck stories (deliberate or otherwise)?

[earlofzetland]

Extract from Bella Bathurst's book "The Wreckers" used in last night's show

 

http://books.google.com/books?id=2CwsXl3adpkC&pg=PA98&lpg=PA98&dq=wreckers+unst&source=web&ots=KjvUkox2Fn&sig=dOzZf7igj1QHA3-FIzwAdZ1VCNY#PPA98,M1

[clanchief]

I saw the programme and found it very interesting.

 

I remember reading that when a ship called the Concordia was lost on the Taing of Helliness (Cunningsburgh), the local residents killed everyone who survived the wreck.

 

There is also a story of ship being wrecked at Hamnavoe in Papa Stour. The ship had been seen in daylight and it was suspected to be a press gang ship and the men on the Island fled to hide until the danger was gone. However, the women took lights to the banks and drew the boat into a rocky shore where it was wrecked and all hands lost. It was later discovered that the ship was an innocent cargo ship.

[earlofzetland]

Now that you mention it i do recall something about Helliness. I seem to think the tale went that there was one survivor who was taken into the house and murdered so they could claim the wreck for himself.

 

Anyone know the full story?

[Ghostrider]

The Concordia, according to the offical records was a 900 ton Danish East Indiaman, with a cargo of naval stores, wrecked on January 6th 1786. Fifty-two people on board, of which thirteen, being the mate and twelve men were saved. Her anchor was reported still visible a low tide as late as 1898.

 

Nothing is noted as unusual corcerning her loss or of the aftermath, so if any shenanigans went on, as very possibly they did, it doesn't seem to have gotten as far as the offical records.

 

Helliness has claimed a number of ships through history though, so it's possible stories of two different wrecks have become mixed up one with the other in the telling over the years, you find a few of those when you dig through the records properly.

[earlofzetland]

Yes, i didnt think it was the Concordia either. I wish i could remember where i saw that story at. Its defininately in print somewhere. A small booklet on tales from Sandwick seems to spring to mind but i'm probably wrong on that.

[Njugle]

I'm kinda blyde dat this story (Helliness) has come up here as it was first told to me when we put me picture of the Helliness house up on the site. I wish i knew more but as i recall the 'devilment' involved the folk in the house on the ness, rather as locals in general. I thought it was more along the lines that during the storm that wrecked the ship lthe folk in the hoose widna let the survivors in and so they died, and was there something about severing their bloated fingers to get the rings off of them?

 

Not to go off on a tangent, but the archways in the house are unlike anything i've seen elsewhere in my travels aboot da banks. It's a cracking place on a fine day, it'd be a vision of hell in a storm lik last weeks, especially if you were gyaan apo da banks. I'd love tae be oot there to see it in a storm, maybe wan o these days.

[Heimdal]

There are images of the House of Helliness arches here...

http://shetlopedia.com/Cunningsburgh

[Ghostrider]

There appears to have been a laird of Helliness back in the day, one would be tempted to assume at least that such a fancy (for it's day) house could well have belonged to such a family. Anybody known if it did for certain? Taking the assumption a step further, if it was a laird who participated in "questionable" practices towards shipwrecked mariners, he no doubt considered he had a god given right to do with them, their ship and contents as he saw fit.

 

I don't know if they were just a "peeire laird" owning a relatively small surrounding area, or whether they owned part/all of Cunningsburgh and/or further afield.

 

Heddell seems to have been the family name from what I can gather, it appears land was purchased at Uresland, Tingwall in the late eighteenth century and some, possibly all, moved there. What became of whatever they owned at Helliness I don't know.

[clanchief]

 

I remember reading that when a ship called the Concordia was lost on the Taing of Helliness (Cunningsburgh), the local residents killed everyone who survived the wreck.

 

There is also a story of ship being wrecked at Hamnavoe in Papa Stour. The ship had been seen in daylight and it was suspected to be a press gang ship and the men on the Island fled to hide until the danger was gone. However, the women took lights to the banks and drew the boat into a rocky shore where it was wrecked and all hands lost. It was later discovered that the ship was an innocent cargo ship.

 

In D M Ferguson's book"Shipwrecks of Orkney & Shetland" he says:

 

Shipwrecks in times gone by often brought out the worst side of human nature and the loss of the Royal Danish Asiatic Company's ship VENDELA on Fetlar in 1737 was an example. She was driven ashore at Heilanabretta with the loss of all on board. An eye witness account paints an appalling picture of the havoc at the scene of the wreck; "The rocks were full of the legs,arms and so on and several bodies thrown up on the beach". Salvage operations on the ship, (afterwards called the "silver ship"), soon degenerated into an exercise of thieving, cheating and double dealing.

 

In another chapter Ferguson goes on to tell the story of the "Shuggar Ship" which went ashore on St Ninians Isle in 1863.................Having decided that there was no more point in trying to save the ship, the local men proceeded to plunder the the GEZINA and made off with all her fittings, cargo and stores. Acting on a complaint made by the captain, a major search was made to try and recover the stolen items and arrest those responsible. A considerable quantity of sugar, ropes, fittings and so on was found and several men taken into custody. The investigation was hampered by the complete unwillingness of the locals to implicate one and other and eventually all those in custody were released without standing trial.

 

Regarding the wrecking by lights in Papa Stour, G P S Peterson in his book "The Coastal Place Names of Papa Stour" says that at some time between 1780 and 1790 lights were shone to lure what they thought was a Naval Press Gang Vessel onto the shore. She struck Mid Baa, and she was thrown ashore on Kalsio Taing, the crew were all lost.

To the dismay of the islanders, next day they discovered that she was not a ship of war but a Dutch brig. Although the name of the ship is not recorded that of her skipper lives on. Papers found on one of the bodies indicated that he was the captain and his name was Jan Weerij. To this day the little cove where his body was found is called "Johnie Wearie's Holl"

 

I suspect that this story has been sanitised over the years to show the islanders in a better light. It seems strange that they would think about using lights to lure the ship ashore and leads me to suspect that perhaps they had some previous experience of this practice?

[Ghostrider]

In another chapter Ferguson goes on to tell the story of the "Shuggar Ship" which went ashore on St Ninians Isle in 1863.................Having decided that there was no more point in trying to save the ship, the local men proceeded to plunder the the GEZINA and made off with all her fittings, cargo and stores. Acting on a complaint made by the captain, a major search was made to try and recover the stolen items and arrest those responsible. A considerable quantity of sugar, ropes, fittings and so on was found and several men taken into custody. The investigation was hampered by the complete unwillingness of the locals to implicate one and other and eventually all those in custody were released without standing trial.

 

Yup, and names could be named too of a few involved, including the alleged attempt to set the jail they were being held in (assumedly the Old Tolbooth) on fire.

 

I am told a pretty good account of this one appeared in a magazine produced by the Sandwick School sometime between approx 1956 and 1959, so if anyone has an old Sandwick School magazine from around then lying in a box on the laft, it might be worth taking a look.

[clanchief]

I suspect that this story has been sanitised over the years to show the islanders in a better light. It seems strange that they would think about using lights to lure the ship ashore and leads me to suspect that perhaps they had some previous experience of this practice?

 

 

Looked up another list of shipwrecks and it lists about 8 "unknown" shipwrecks in Papa Stour in the 1700's. Sinisterly, it notes against an "unknown" wreck in 1730 - "Crew Murdered". So maybe my theory above about the Papa Stour natives is not so far wrong!

[Njugle]

The idea of deliberate wrecking is not so strange. In the harsh and often seemingly callous world of yesteryear, to lure a group of strangers/foreigners to their deaths on the rocks or thereafter to reap the benefits of the pursers booty, the fixtures and fittings and the bounty of their cargo would, to some, have been no different than spearing a particularly large whale, only better. Particularly if there had been a poor harvest or poor year at the haaf.

[Vivari]

[color=white]Clanchief wrote:[/color]

 

In another chapter Ferguson goes on to tell the story of the "Shuggar Ship" which went ashore on St Ninians Isle in 1863.................Having decided that there was no more point in trying to save the ship, the local men proceeded to plunder the the GEZINA and made off with all her fittings, cargo and stores.

 

There is a detailed account of the Shugger Ship incident by Robert Leask in the Shetland Folk Book Volume VIII.

[Heddell-Cowie]

You'd be quite correct about the Heddell's being from Helliness. I am a direct descendant of the Heddell family of Helliness.

 

Out of interest are there still Heddells living up on the islands. My knowledge of the family beyond my grandfather (Francis George Heddell Cowie) is quite limited.