Latest news with #Orkney
The Guardian
12 hours ago
- General
- The Guardian
‘Long-lived and lucky' ship wrecked off Orkney was at siege of Quebec, experts find
When a schoolboy running on a beach on the island of Sanday in Orkney last year came across the timbers of a shipwreck that had been exposed after a storm, local people knew the ship might have an intriguing history. Residents of the tiny island at the edge of the Scottish archipelago are familiar with ships that have come to grief in stormy seas, hundreds of shipwrecks having been recorded there over the centuries. But this large section of oak hull, its boards carefully knitted together by wooden pegs, appeared particularly well built and was obviously not recent. The question was, how old was the ship – and what else could they learn about it? Eighteen months after that discovery in February 2024, archaeologists and local volunteers have managed to identify the ship and to piece together the surprising history of a vessel that witnessed some of the most dramatic events of the 18th century before finally being wrecked off Sanday in 1788. Thanks to detailed timber dating and historical analysis, experts are confident the hull belonged to HMS Hind, a 24-gun Royal Navy frigate that was built in Chichester in 1749 and went on to have a remarkable career. Despite its sticky end, the Hind was 'an amazingly long-lived and lucky ship', according to Ben Saunders, a senior marine archaeologist at Wessex Archaeology, who led the project alongside Historic Environment Scotland (HES) to recover and identify the vessel's remains. The ship, naval records show, served off the coast of Jamaica in the 1750s and took part in the sieges of Louisbourg (1758) and Quebec (1759), when the British defeated French forces in Canada during the seven years war. It was among the British fleet in the American revolutionary war of the 1770s and then served for a decade as a training ship in the Irish Sea, before it was decommissioned and sold off to become a 500-tonne whaling ship in the Arctic Circle. It was in this guise, under the new name of The Earl of Chatham, that the ship was wrecked by a North Sea storm on 29 April 1788. Even then, its luck did not desert it – all 56 people onboard survived, a snippet in the Aberdeen Journal records. Identifying the vessel posed a challenge for present-day archaeologists, however. The hull, measuring 10 metres by 5 metres (about 33ft by 16ft), had been well preserved under the sand, allowing multiple wood samples to be sent for dendrochronological analysis. Experts found that the wood had originated in southern and south-western England, and that the earliest sample had a clear felling date of spring 1748. Saunders and his colleagues then worked closely with the community of Sanday, for whom shipwreck timber has been an important source of wood for centuries. The island is largely treeless, and 'some of the people we've been working with have half their roofs held up with masts and deck beams', he says. 'It's incredible.' A date in the mid-18th century was not only interesting but helpful, says Saunders, 'because this is when you're starting to get the bureaucracy of the British state kicking in, and a lot more records surviving'. A group of 20 volunteer researchers pored through maritime archives, government shipping registers and news sheets to pinpoint the right vessel among at least 270 known to have foundered on Sanday. Sign up to Headlines UK Get the day's headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning after newsletter promotion '[The islanders] also brought a lot of their own experience,' says Saunders. 'You've got a lot of people in Orkney who are connected to the sea anyway. That meant we could collate this massive amount of data and start saying: 'Right, that ship is too small, that ship was built in the Netherlands, no, not that ship.'' Eventually, the records led the researchers to the Hind and its second life as a whaler when Britain's early Industrial Revolution was relying more heavily on the products of whaling. The timbers salvaged from the shoreline are now being preserved underwater at the Sanday heritage centre while a long-term home is under discussion. Alison Turnbull, the director of external relationships and partnerships at HES, says the 'rare and fascinating story' of the ship's identification 'shows that communities hold the keys to their own heritage. It is our job to empower them to make these discoveries.' Saunders says what he really enjoyed about studying this wreck was 'that we've had to do this detective work', combining the highly technical scientific analysis with scrutiny of a wealth of archive material. 'We're really lucky to have so much archive material, because of the period and because of where it wrecked in Orkney. It's been very satisfying.'
Sky News
12 hours ago
- General
- Sky News
Sanday Wreck: Archaeologists believe they have identified centuries-old shipwreck in Orkney
Archaeologists believe they have identified a centuries-old vessel shipwrecked in Orkney. Expert say the wreck discovered on the island of Sanday last year is most likely the Earl of Chatham, a former Royal Navy vessel called HMS Hind that was later renamed once it became a whaling ship. Historic Environment Scotland (HES), which funded the research, said the sixth-rate 24-gun frigate saw many years of active service, including the sieges of Louisbourg and Quebec in the 1750s and the American Revolutionary War in the late 1770s. Once decommissioned, it was sold and renamed the Earl of Chatham, becoming a 500-tonne whaling ship. HES said this was common for Royal Navy boats as their build quality allowed them to withstand the icy conditions of British whaling routes. As the Earl of Chatham, it completed four seasons in the Arctic before ultimately meeting its end in the Bay of Lopness in March 1788. The 56 sailors on board all survived. Wessex Archaeology, along with Dendrochronicle and volunteer community researchers, began working on the wreck's origins following its discovery in February 2024. Analysis of the wood concluded the ship was built with timber from south and southwest England. Archaeologists from Wessex Archaeology, local community researchers, and the Sanday Heritage Centre then spent months working with archives and community records to find the most likely candidate for the ship. This research was also supported by Sanday Heritage Group and Orkney Archaeology Society. Ben Saunders, senior marine archaeologist at Wessex Archaeology, said: "It is thanks to our dedicated team of community researchers and the evidence they have gathered that means we have been able to identify the Sanday Wreck with a reasonable degree of confidence. "Throughout this project, we have learned so much about the wreck, but also about the community in Sanday in the 1780s. "Sanday was infamous for shipwrecks at the time, called 'the cradle of shipwrecks in Scotland', but the community was equally well-known for its hospitability as it looked after sailors who fell afoul of the area's stormy seas. "We are grateful to the support from our partners, and we're delighted to be able to share our work on this intriguing wreck." The Sanday Wreck was revealed last year due to changes in the climate. Increased storminess and unusual wind patterns led to removal of the covering sands which had hidden and protected the wreck for centuries. Changes to coastlines, which are predicted to accelerate in coming decades, could make similar finds more common. The timbers are currently housed in a freshwater tank at Sanday Heritage Centre as part of preservation efforts. There, visitors can find out more about the wreck's story and Sanday's history. Alison Turnbull, director of external relations and partnerships at HES, said: "The discovery of the Sanday Wreck is a rare and fascinating story. "Wessex Archaeology worked closely with the community of Sanday to discover the ship's identity, which shows that communities hold the keys to their own heritage. "It is our job to empower communities to make these discoveries and be able to tell the story of their historic environment."
The Standard
13 hours ago
- General
- The Standard
Science and local sleuthing identify a 250-year-old shipwreck on a Scottish island
In this image provided by Wessex Archaeology, the Sanday Wreck is seen on the shores of Sanday on Orkney, Feb. 2024. (Wessex Archaeology via AP)
Yahoo
15 hours ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Three whales found dead in Orkney stranding
Three bottlenose whales have been found dead on Papa Westray, one of Orkney's northernmost islands. A specialist team from the University of Glasgow has started to carry out post-mortem examinations on the carcasses. Investigations into the cause of death are ongoing. It comes after the biggest mass stranding in Scotland for almost 30 years took place in Orkney last summer. The Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme (SMASS), a team at the University of Glasgow, arrived in Orkney after the carcasses were discovered by a local dog walker on Monday morning. Warning: this story contains images and descriptions some readers may find distressing SMASS member Marielle ten Doeschate said: "With any post-mortem we're kind of on the clock, because samples start to degrade, and the more decomposed an animal is the less informative it is for auxiliary tests. "But with deep-diving species we're extra on the ball with that because heat generation means decomposition goes quicker, so we were actually really lucky to get here so quickly." SMASS examined one of the three whales on Tuesday before a high tide put a stop to initial investigations. Despite a noticeable bloating after lying out in the sun, the team found that the whales had all been healthy - though they had not been feeding recently. SMASS will continue its post-mortem examinations at Vestness in Papa Westray on Wednesday to try to determine a cause of death. Bottlenose whales are deep-diving mammals endemic to the North Atlantic. They are usually found at 800ft (244m) below sea level where there are no predators, feeding on squid. SMASS director Dr Andrew Brownlow, a veterinary pathologist, told BBC Scotland News: "We're getting many more species that we'd normally see further south in warmer waters that seem to be coming up here more frequently in bigger numbers." He said the reason for the shift from their natural habitat remain unconfirmed, but that it ultimately seemed to be as a result of climate change. 'We can learn so much' However, for Dr Brownlow and his team, the discovery of the whales was not entirely negative. He added: "As sad as it is that they strand like this, we can learn so much about them, we can learn about the individual but also learn about the species - a species of which we know very little." The carcasses were discovered by local firefighter Daniel Elves, who was walking his dogs when the animals "loomed out of the mist". The islanders had just celebrated their annual Papay Fun Weekend, which sees a large increase in its normal population of approximately 70 people for an annual get-together. "I actually sat down and shed a tear at the colour of the water," Mr Elves said. "You couldn't have made it any redder." SMASS attended a similar scene last year when an entire pod of whales was found washed ashore on Tresness Beach, on the island of Sanday, in the largest mass stranding since 1995. "July is a particularly bad month for strandings," said Dr Brownlow. "In 2023, there was a stranding of 55 pilot whales on the Isle of Lewis. "Almost exactly a year later, 77 of them came in to Sanday." Whole pod of 77 whales die in 'biggest mass stranding in decades' Whales were healthy before Orkney stranding - expert Experts probe one of UK's worst whale strandings
BBC News
16 hours ago
- Science
- BBC News
Three bottlenose whales found dead in Orkney stranding
Three bottlenose whales have been found dead on Papa Westray, one of Orkney's northernmost islands.A specialist team from the University of Glasgow has started to carry out post-mortem examinations on the carcasses. Investigations into the cause of death are ongoing. It comes after the biggest mass stranding in Scotland for almost 30 years took place in Orkney last summer. The Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme (SMASS), a team at the University of Glasgow, arrived in Orkney after the carcasses were discovered by a local dog walker on Monday morning. Warning: this story contains images and descriptions some readers may find distressing SMASS member Marielle ten Doeschate said: "With any post-mortem we're kind of on the clock, because samples start to degrade, and the more decomposed an animal is the less informative it is for auxiliary tests. "But with deep-diving species we're extra on the ball with that because heat generation means decomposition goes quicker, so we were actually really lucky to get here so quickly."SMASS examined one of the three whales on Tuesday before a high tide put a stop to initial investigations. Despite a noticeable bloating after lying out in the sun, the team found that the whales had all been healthy - though they had not been feeding recently. SMASS will continue its post-mortem examinations at Vestness in Papa Westray on Wednesday to try to determine a cause of whales are deep-diving mammals endemic to the North are usually found at 800ft (244m) below sea level where there are no predators, feeding on director Dr Andrew Brownlow, a veterinary pathologist, told BBC Scotland News: "We're getting many more species that we'd normally see further south in warmer waters that seem to be coming up here more frequently in bigger numbers."He said the reason for the shift from their natural habitat remain unconfirmed, but that it ultimately seemed to be as a result of climate change. 'We can learn so much' However, for Dr Brownlow and his team, the discovery of the whales was not entirely added: "As sad as it is that they strand like this, we can learn so much about them, we can learn about the individual but also learn about the species - a species of which we know very little."The carcasses were discovered by local firefighter Daniel Elves, who was walking his dogs when the animals "loomed out of the mist". The islanders had just celebrated their annual Papay Fun Weekend, which sees a large increase in its normal population of approximately 70 people for an annual get-together. "I actually sat down and shed a tear at the colour of the water," Mr Elves said."You couldn't have made it any redder."SMASS attended a similar scene last year when an entire pod of whales was found washed ashore on Tresness Beach, on the island of Sanday, in the largest mass stranding since 1995."July is a particularly bad month for strandings," said Dr Brownlow."In 2023, there was a stranding of 55 pilot whales on the Isle of Lewis. "Almost exactly a year later, 77 of them came in to Sanday."
