the Borodinskoye Polye wreck

[da norseman]

Hi thare i have a copy of the book "SHIPWRECKS OF THE NORTH OF SCOTLAND". I have read most of the stories of the two wrecks of the klondykers Lunokhods in 1993 grounded at the bressay light and the Pionersk in 1994 grounded at the Ness of Trebister. In November 17th 1993 the Borodinskoye Polye grounded after draging her anchors at The Unicorn outside lerwick harbour. In the book it does not have eny storys of the Borodinskoye Polye I've looked around the diving websites who visited the Lunokhods and the Pionersk but nuthing about the Borodinskoye Polye Does eny one know eny stories about the ship and photos of her sinking?.

[Heimdal]

"37 crew from the fish factory ship Borodinskoye Polye

Bronze Medal and the Maud Smith Award for the bravest act of lifesaving in 1993

Joint Second Coxswain William J Clark

Vellum* Joint Second Coxswain/Assistant Mechanic Peter Thomson, Emergency Mechanic Ian Fraser and Crew Members Robert Wiseman, Richie Simpson and Theo Nicolson"

 

The above from

http://www.rnli.org.uk/rnli_near_you/scotland/stations/LerwickShetland/history

 

I mind hearing it was black dark and the crew's suitcases were raining down on the lifeboat when she first came alongside. There was no room for 37 crew and all their kit so the suitcases went over the side

Any of the above-mentioned crew will probably remember it well.

[Ertieiddabanks]

I've dived on the Lunokhods and it's a pretty impressive wreck. She's split in two with the wheelhouse section slid down to 80 metres and the aft section lying about 30 metres deep maybe 100 metres out from the bressay light, you can see the different deck sections as you go deeper and can fin your way into some of them if you've got a light.

[da norseman]

i found this on the shetland museum website could be the sister ship to the LUNOKHODS

 

http://i606.photobucket.com/albums/tt142/danorseman/imageCA6AF30Y-1.jpg

[skippy]

hello

 

the wreck of the Borodinskoye Polye is spread over a large area to the North side of the Unicorn Baa

 

Here is the info I have

 

 

MV Borodinskoye Poleye

 

 

On the 18th November 1993, just 9 days after the Lunokhods -1 sank, the Borodinskoye Poleye a Russian “Klondyker†struck the Unicorn rock, located in the north mouth of Lerwick Harbour, and stayed there.

The vessel was large with a Length of 102 metres, beam 15.2 metres, draught 5.8 metres and weighing 3147 Gross tonnage. She was built in 1982 by Veb Volkswerks in Stralsund.

Owned by the Russian cooperative “Zaprybpromrazedkaâ€, she was powered by an 8 cylinder Oil engine of 2200Bhp.

 

The Lerwick Harbour Authority were not aware of her presence as she was “moonlighting†in the area to the North of the Harbour entrance hoping to get first to the Soviet Block trawlers bringing their catch in for processing. This resulted in some confusion as when the master radioed in for assistance in Force 8 storms, he gave no position and then abandoned ship. Although the resulting delay made no difference in the end as she could not be salved from the Unicorn and broke up a few weeks later. Thankfully the Shetland authorities had managed to remove fuel oil and diesel from the stricken ship by then and the only pollutant from the wreck was large amounts of plastic packaging.

 

By the 13th February 1996 the wreck was reported as having broken and submerged.

 

Divers have visited the site most recently in July 2008 and reported the wreck to have largly dispersed from on top of the rocks and slid down with the heaviest pieces being to the North of the baa.

 

 

 

if I could work out the way to post them ... I have several pictures of the wreck and of the intact ship.

 

 

 

........

 

As for the lunokhods 1

She is lodged into the geo at the base of Bressay light (not 100m offshore) and the bow being the deepest part at 42m with the stern almost rising to the surface.

the wreck 100m offshore is supposed to be the WW1 casualty the "Leonatus" although there has been no proof of her identity to my knowledge.

 

I hope that helps

 

 

H

[Ghostrider]

Does eny one know eny stories about the ship and photos of her sinking?.

 

I seem to mind the 'Times" printing a number of aerial pics of her lying on her lug on the baa at the time. A raid through the 'Times' Archives/Files should turn up something.

[Ghostrider]

Ian Leask has a couple of photos of her aground uploaded on shipnostalgia.com if you're still interested.

[stilldellin]

Guide to posting images on Shetlink. ( by Pooks ) :-

http://www.shetlink.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6048