At about 9 o’clock on the evening of the 29th September 1924, the Kathleen Annie, ran aground on the east side of Green Holm, off Eday, at a place known as ‘Three Goes’.
After a wait of eight hours the crew was eventually picked up by the SS St Magnus.
The Kathleen Annie was a London registered four masted schooner and was on her way to Newfoundland with a cargo of crude spirit from Bremen. They had already experienced heavy weather on their way to Kirkwall where they had to put in for repairs, the wedge blocks which hold the masts in place having become dislodged.
” When she left Kirkwall there was a strong southerly wind with a rising sea. The weather gradually became worse, being accompanied by heavy rainstorms.”
Antarctic explorer Commander Frank Worsley was in charge of the vessel. He said:
“We could not see a foot in front of us, the weather being so thick. The schooner became unmanageable, and as we were unable to turn her, she was driven onto the rocks, and I am afraid she will become a total wreck.”
Members of the crew described huge waves sweeping over the vessel which soon filled with water. The men secured a rope and holding on tight managed to get over to the Holm. They sent up lit flare lights for over 5 hours in driving rain. Exposed to all that Orkney’s weather could throw at them, the men were eventually rescued by the SS St Magnus at about 6 o’clock.
The rescue from the Holm was no easy task either. A heavy swell prevented the St Magnus for getting in close. The vessel was by this time almost completely submerged and the men had to crawl along the bulwarks of the stricken Kathleen Annie where they could be picked up by a small boat from the St Magnus.
The men only had left what they were standing up in – all their belongings were gone. Commander Worsley did manage to save his master’s certificate and the flag of the ship. The near death experience was enough for German crew member Caral Stuven who declared he had enough of the sea and that he would remember the Orkney islands for many years to come. The crew consisted of British, German, Danish and Norwegian seamen.
The Stromness lifeboat had also been called out to the scene but were only alerted at 7 am and by then the men had been picked up by the St Magnus.
Commander Worsley was well known in Orkney from previous talks he had given on his expeditions with Ernest Shackleton. New Zealander Worsley served on Ernest Shackleton‘s Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914–1916, as captain of Endurance. He also served in the Royal Navy Reserve during the First World War.
At the start of his career Frank Worsley had served his apprenticeship under Orcadian Captain Robert Sutherland in the clipper Piako of the New Zealand Shipping Company. Whenever he stopped over in Orkney he would call into Stromness to visit Captain Sutherland.
Reference: The Orkney Herald and Advertiser, October 1, 1924.
Fiona Grahame