St. Mary's Island, Elise

HER Number:
13122

District:
N Tyneside

Site Name:
St. Mary's Island, Elise

Place:
St. Mary's Island

Map Sheet:
NZ37NE

Class:
Maritime Craft

Site Type: Broad:
Patrol Vessel

Site Type: Specific:
Patrol Boat

General Period:
Modern

Specific Period:
C20

Form of Evidence:
Wreckage

Description:
A steam trawler of 239 tons, which struck a mine on 22nd September 1918. N 55 06 30 W 001 26 00 (Collings). Steel, 239-ton, 38.53m long, 6.7m beam, 3.5m draught steam fishing trawler, registered at Fleetwood. She was built by J. Duthie, Torry Ship Building Co. in Aberdeen in 1907 and owned by J.Marr & Sons Ltd. Her single steel screw propeller was powered by a three-cylinder, triple-expansion engine using one boiler. Her machine was built by W.V.Lidgerwood of Glasgow. She had one deck and three watertight bulkheads. In 1915 she was requisitioned by the Royal Navy and converted to an armed patrol vessel, equipped with a bow-mounted deck gun that fired 2.72 kg (6lb) shells. On 22 September 1918, under the command of Captain J.W. Walsh, the Elise was on patrol duties two miles south-east of Blyth when she detonated a German submarine laid mine and sank almost immediately. The wreck lies in a south-east to north-west direction on a seabed of hard sand and stone in a general depth of 24m and is surrounded by lots of small rocks scattered about on the seabed. This is a small wreck and not too easy to find because of its size. The engines and boiler are lying together amid a pile of steel frames, plates and pipes where the vessel collapsed in on itself. The bow section, which is connected to the wreck, still has its shape, but the top structure and deck part have collapsed inside. There is a considerable amount of non-ferrous metal lying around under the jumbled heap of steel, however the six pounder gun has been removed and only the base plate remains. The large winches lie about 50m to the east of the main wreck-site, with bits of scattered wreckage in between. The Ian Spokes database lists this as an armed trawler resting at a depth of 15m. Grid reference conversion made 18.01.2011 with http://gps.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/etrs89geo_natgrid.asp with Lat/Long referenced as N 55 05 45 W 01 26 18

Easting:
3625

Northing:
7947

Grid Reference:
NZ36257947

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
Peter Collings, 1991, The New Divers Guide to the North-East Coast, page 50; Young, R. (2001) Comprehensive guide to Shipwrecks of the North East Coast (The): Volume Two, Tempus, Gloucestershire. p. 177, Ian T. Spokes Wreck Database, Inga Project, National Monument Record