Alternative Names Moyle; Widdrington; Hoy Skerries; Bay Of Cheekland; Graemsay; Atlantic
Site type STEAMSHIP (20TH CENTURY)
Canmore ID 102323
Site Number HY20SW 8001
NGR HY 2450 0498
Latitude N 58 55.55
Longitude W 3 18.6833
Council ORKNEY ISLANDS
Parish MARITIME - ORKNEY
Former Region ORKNEY ISLANDS AREA
Former District MARITIME
Former County MARITIME

Canmore Mapping
View this site on a map

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Archaeological Notes

HY20SW 8001 2450 0498
N58 55.55 W3 18.6833

NLO: Graemsay [name centred HY 25 05]
Stromness [name: HY 253 090]
Scapa Flow [name centred HY 36 00].

For plan indicating the relative locations and orientations of blockships in this group, see Macdonald 1990, 108.

Formerly entered as HY20SW 8864.

For other wrecks in this group, see HY20NW 8001-6 and HY20SW 8002.

Horizontal Datum = OGB
General water depth = 10
Orientation of keel/wreck = EW

Circumstances of Loss Details
-----------------------------
The steamship DOYLE was sunk as blockship in Burra Sound.

Surveying Details
-----------------------------
1926. A dangerous wreck is reported at 58 55 33N, 003 18 41W. It is 260 feet long (79 metres), and is lying on an approximate orientation of 090/270. The stern is standing 5 metres high. The same length of vessel appears to be underwater.

1976. The vessel is reported to have been dispersed in 1962.

13 August 1976. The site is now charted as stranded wreck.
Report by Dept of Harbours, Orkney, 5 July 1976.

22 July 1988. The wreck is referred to as the 'MOYLE', sunk in 1940!
Source: The Wrecks of Scapa Flow.

Hydrographic Office, 1995.

(Classified as steel steamship: no cargo specified, but former name cited as Widdrington, and date of loss as 7 October 1914). Doyle: this vessel was sunk as a blockship in Burra Sound.
Registration: British. 1761grt. Length: 79m. Beam: 10m.
(Location of loss cited as N58 55.55 W3 18.70).
I G Whittaker 1998.

Length: 83.9m
Beam: 11m
GRT: 1761
This ship (which has been mis-named the Doyle on occasion) was built in 1907 by the Ailsa Ship Building Co at Troon. A triple-expansion engine of 216hp and a two boilers powered a single screw. The ship had a single deck and five bulkheads. The poop, quarterdeck, boat deck and forecastle measured 21ft (6.4m), 84ft (25.6m), 54ft (16.5m) and 32ft (9.8m) in length respectively.
She was sunk as a blockship in 1940. No other details of the service or commercial history of the ship are apparently available and there is neither a published photograph nor any detailed description of the surviving remains. The ship has not been dispersed by explosives, remains substantially intact, and is regularly visited by sport divers.
Burra Sound forms a narrow gap between Hoy Skerries (to the SW) and the island of Graemsay. Several wrecks are charted in a general depth of between 5 and 12m; the sound is subject to pronounced tidal flows.
Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 7 November 2002.
R and B Larn 1998; I G Whittaker 1998.
HO chart 35 (1991).

This ship is probably to be equated with the 'unknown wreck' noted by Ridley in Burra Sound, at cited location N58 55.53 W3 18.68 [HY 2450 0494].
Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 18 November 2002.
G Ridley 1992.

(Name cited as Doyle).
Length: 260 ft (79.2m): date of sinking 7 October 1914.
'Unballasted. Completely submerged. Three fathoms over her at L.W. Davits visible.' (Report dated 28 June 1915).
The accompanying map depicts the vessel in outline as lying to the S of the main group, slightly to the W of the centre of the sound, and with bows towards the E. The accompanying panoramic sketch (dated 8 December 1915) omits this ship.
Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 30 January 2004.
PRO [Kew] ADM116/2073A: dated 17 December 1919.

Notes and Activities

August 1997

DESK BASED ASSESSMENT

Project Coastal Assessment Survey of Burray, Flotta, Graemsay, Hoy and South Ronaldsay

Notes Throughout the two World Wars Scapa Flow served as the base of the British Home Fleet. Access to these waters was guarded by a series of coastal batteries, booms and blockships. The blockships comprised old and damaged vessels which were deliberately sunk in position so as to form a submarine obstacle to deter enemy incursions. After 1945 some of the blockships were dispersed by explosives to clear the shipping lanes while many others were salvaged for parts and metal. The wrecks of several blockships remain on the sea bed and in the intertidal zone.
(i) [HY20SW 8002] The Gobernador Bories, a 2,332 ton iron steamer, was built in 1882 at West Hartlepool. She was sunk in Burra Sound in 1915. She lies S of Hoy Skerries and is relatively intact.
(ii) [HY20SW 8001] The Ronda was built in 1889 in Sunderland and was sunk in 1914. She was a steel single-screw 1,941 ton steamer. She was dispersed with explosives in 1962.
(iii) [HY20NW 8005] Built in Glasgow in 1882, the 2,252 steel single-screw steamer, Budrie, was sunk in 1915. She was dispersed with explosives in 1962.
(iv) [HY20NW 8003] The Rotherfield was a 2,831 ton steel single-screw steamer. Built in West Hartlepool in 1889, she was sunk in Burra Sound in 1914. She was dispersed with explosives in 1962.
(v) [HY20NW 8004] A 3,423 ton steel single-screw steamer, the Urmstone Grange, was built in Belfast in 1894 and was sunk in 1914. She was dispersed with explosives in 1962.
(vi) [HY20NW 8003] Built in 1938 in Germany, the 8,900 ton tanker Inverlane was holed by a mine off South Shields in 1939. She was patched up, towed to Burra Sound and, there, sunk as a blockship in 1944. She remains relatively intact and her bows are clearly visible, rising from the waters to the S of Hoy Skerries.
(vii) [HY20NW 8006] The Tarbraka was a single-screw steamer of 2,624 tons. Built in Rotterdam in 1909, she was captured by the Royal Navy in 1940 and was sunk as a blockship, initially in Kirk Sound. At the completion of Churchill Barrier 1, the Tarbraka was re-floated and sunk in Burra Sound in 1944. She now lies, upside down, in 12m of water to the S of Hoy Skerries.
(viii) [HY20SW 8001] The 1,761 ton single-screw steamer the Doyle, built in Troon in 1907, was sunk in 1940. She lies relatively intact beneath 15m of water.

Further details

5 March 2012

EXTERNAL REFERENCE

Notes There has been some confusion surrounding the details of this vessel due to a mix up between the Doyle and its sister ship the Moyle (e.g Ferguson 1985, 36; Ridley 1992, 158) and Larn and Larn (1989 DH 00/00/1940) specifically states that the name Doyle is incorrect. However it appears to be the opposite case. Wood (2008, 141) published a personal communication from Ian Whitaker who had finally resolved the matter. Apparently the wreck in Scapa Flow is that of the Doyle which was sunk in 1914 while its sister ship, the Moyle was also sunk as a blockship but in Dunkirk rather than Scapa Flow and in 1940. It is likely that the similarity between the names and history of the ships led to this confusion.
Information from Mr J McCarthy, WA [Wessex Archaeology] Coastal and Marine, Edinburgh, 5 March 2012.
D M Ferguson 1985; R and B Larn 1998; L Wood 2008.



Further details

5 March 2012

RCAHMS NOTE

Notes (Re-entered as Doyle, on the basis of information of information from Mr J McCarthy: Moyle retained as cross-reference).
Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 5 March 2012.



Further details

Books and References

Ferguson, D M (1985) The wrecks of Scapa Flow Stromness
Page(s): 36 Held at RCAHMS E.5.14.FER

Larn and Larn, R and B (1998) Shipwreck index of the British Isles: volume 4, Scotland, London
Page(s): DH (R) 00/00/1940 Held at RCAHMS E.5.14.LAR

Macdonald, R (1990) Dive Scapa Flow, Edinburgh
Page(s): 60, 64, 106, 112-113 Held at RCAHMS E.5.14.MAC

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