South Shields, Marne

HER Number:
12956

District:
S Tyneside

Site Name:
South Shields, Marne

Place:
South Shields

Map Sheet:
NZ36NE

Class:
Maritime Craft

Site Type: Broad:

Site Type: Specific:
Motor Launch

General Period:
Modern

Specific Period:
C20

Form of Evidence:
Wreckage

Description:
A Dutch motor vessel of 175 tons. Mined on 31st August 1940 at N55 00 745 W001 23 496. Her cargo was ammunition and copper pipe. Wooden, 175-ton; 32.3m long, 5.71m beam and 2.51m draught. The Marne was a Dutch Motor Vessel, registered in Rotterdam. She was built by J. Koster at Groningen in 1926 and owned at the time of loss by WH Muller & Sons Ltd NV. Her single propeller was powered by an auxiliary oil/diesel engine and she had one deck, one bulkhead, a cruiser stern and an aft superstructure, consisting of a 7.1m quarter-deck. On 31 August 1940 this small coaster was on a voyage from the Tyne to the Tees with a cargo of bagged grain (some reports suggest she was carrying ammunition and copper pipes) when she detonated a German-laid mine and foundered just off the Tyne South pier lighthouse at South Shields. The wreck lies one a seabed of dirty sand and stone in a general depth of 14-15m, (Spokes database records a depth of 16m) about 300m or so out from the Tyne south pier lighthouse. It is not far from the Tyne shipping lane. It is a small wreck which is totally collapsed and well broken up. Grid reference conversion made 08.12.2010 with http://gps.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/etrs89geo_natgrid.asp with Lat/Long referenced as N 55 00 44 W 01 23 28

Easting:
3903

Northing:
6879

Grid Reference:
NZ39036879

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
Peter Collings, 1991, The New Divers Guide to the North-East Coast, page 31; Young, R. (2001) Comprehensive guide to Shipwrecks of the North East Coast (The): Volume Two, Tempus, Gloucestershire. p. 156, Ian T. Spokes Wreck Database, Inga Project, National Monuments Record (908749); Hydrographic Office wreck index; Maritime and Coastguard Agency: Receiver of Wreck Amnesty (23-Jan to 24-Apr-2001); Richard and Bridget Larn 1997 Shipwreck index of the British Isles, volume 3. The east coast of England : Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, County Durham, Northumberland Section 6, County Durham (CF); 1989 Lloyd's war losses: the Second World War 3 September-14 August 1945, Volumes I and II Page(s)120; Dave Shaw and Barry Winfield 1988 Dive north east : a Diver guide Page(s)56