Shipwrecks

 

In the days of sail powered vessels, before engines were invented, the shoreline of the East Coast of Fife would be a very dangerous place for craft that were powered only by the wind. With the prevailing winds in the Firth of Forth being from the southeast and the southwest it would be very easy for a vessel with only sail for power to be driven ashore in a gale.

 

Ever since I was a boy, and straight down from the Cross Wynd and at low tide, I've been finding bits of wood that are all of the same type and age, lodged in the crevices of the rocks.  One time just as the tide was rushing in I found a section of wood that would have to have been from the keel of a very large vessel. This piece was about fifteen inches square and maybe six feet long. It had empty holes such as a keel would have for through bolts. I could roll it as the tide was coming in but I couldn't up-end it.  Another large piece that I found contained splice joints that are like nothing that present day people would make or use.  All of the pieces appear to be hundreds of years and possibly thousands of years old. In this same debris field I've found very old pieces of iron objects. Some quite large. One day as I walked with a friend on the beach and along the tide line a wave uncovered a gold coin. My friend picked it up. I took the coin to the Edinburgh library and for a whole day I sat in the library going over many books of ancient coins to try to identify the coin but I never found a match.

 

I'm firmly convinced that in gale from the south a very large vessel was driven on to the Thill Rock that lies straight offshore. Today the Thill is marked with a buoy. In ancient times it would not have had a marker. But marked or not a large vessel in a gale from the south could have been driven straight on to the Thill and wrecked.  I think that such a tragedy did happen and that the vessel foundered and later became embedded in the sunken shifting sands and that storms to this day continue to churn up bits that keep coming ashore.

 

I've also wondered if the stone coffins that were unearthed nearby at just above the high tide mark at Earlsferry could have a connection to this wreck.

 

I know that the next time  I return to Earlsferry  and I go raking down in the rocks I'll find more bits of this ancient vessel.

 

And, who knows, what else?  Another Atocha maybe?

 

The largest shipwreck that I've seen on these shores was the SS Wearbridge, a large steamship that broke loose while it was being towed.  This ship was blown ashore and ran aground at the end of the West Sea road at West Bay. That event caused a lot of local excitement. Men of the Coast Guard arrived on the scene and fired line carrying rockets at the ship. After several attempts a line was finally put aboard the vessel. From this messenger line a pulley system was set up to get a heavy rope aboard the ship. To this rope was attached a breeches buoy system and one by one the crew were taken off the ship. Mostly their trip from ship to shore was by them being dragged through the sea.  About a month later at the height of a high tide, two powerful tugs managed to haul the ship off the rocks.