Technical
Official Number: 148223
Yard Number: 57
Completed: 1917
Gross Tonnage: 271
Net Tonnage: 123
Length: 125.7 ft
Breadth: 23.5 ft
Depth: 12.7 ft
Built: Collingwood Shipbuilding Co Ltd, Collingwood, Ontario, Canada
Engine: T.3-cyl by Marine Iron Works, Chicago.
Boiler: 480ihp Canadian Allis Chalmers Ltd, Toronto
History
1.1917: Ordered.
1918: Launched by Collingwood Shipbuilding Co Ltd, Collingwood, Ontario, Canada (Yd.No.57) (Canadian “Castle” – “T.R.” class) for The Admiralty (paid for and built under direction of RCN) as TR.11.
28.6.1918: Completed and commissioned in the Royal Canadian Navy (1-123pdr).
8.1919: Paid off and laid up.
1920: Accepted offer of Rose Street Foundry & Engineering Co Ltd, Inverness (Captain D. J. Munro as agent) to bring drifters with trawlers as escorts to UK for lay-up in Muirtown Basin, Caledonian Canal, Inverness prior to sale and possible refit for classification as steam trawlers (The Rose Street Foundry & Engineering Co Ltd letter dated 12 April 1920).
1921: Brought over at The Admiralty’s expense.
1.1926: Still laid up.
2.1926: Rejected offer for all remaining trawlers at £2,000 each (B. Allenby, Aberdeen letter dated 10 Feb 1926).
8.1926: Sold “as is” to Boston Deep Sea Fishing & Ice Co Ltd, Grimsby (Fred Parkes, Blackpool, manager).
17.9.1926: Renamed SAN SEBASTIAN (FD126).
17.1.1933: At 6.58 am. stranded near White Beach Point, NE side of Galway Bay, propeller damaged. At 8.32 am. trawler MALAGA (GY393) standing by and will connect and attempt to refloat. At 11.30 am. refloated by MALAGA and taken to anchorage to await tide to Galway.
5/6/7.1933: Chartered by Italian Government to provide support for a transAtlantic flight involving 20 to 30 aeroplanes.
9.5.1933: Sailed Fleetwood for NW Atlantic.
19.5.1933: Arrived St. John’s, Newfoundland.
9.1.1937: Sailed Fleetwood at 9.40 a.m. for West of Scotland grounds with a crew of thirteen (Sk. Richard W. Pook).
10.1.1937: At approx 2.5 a.m. ran into heavy rain and reduced visibility of about 2 miles. At approx 3.10 a.m. stranded on rocks off Iommalach Rock 2 miles off Ardbeg, Islay. Pounded heavily on rocks and rolled over to starboard. Crew abandoned and eight men landed on rocks, skipper on a separate rock; four crew lost.
11.1.1937: At about 9.00 a.m. eight men rescued from rock by PIBROCH (96grt/1923) on passage Glasgow-Port Ellen. At approx 2.0 p.m. skipper rescued.
2.2.1937: Fleetwood registry closed “Total loss”.
23.3.1937: At BOT Formal Investigation (No.S.382), it was concluded that the stranding and subsequent loss was caused by the wrongful act and defaults of Sk. Pook. His ticket was suspended for twelve months. It was also found that the stranding and total loss was caused by the defaults of the mate James A. Maunder. He was severely censured.
(Survivors (all Fleetwood unless stated)- Sk. Richard Pook; James Maunder, Mate; Harold Evans, Bosun; William Pye, Ch.Eng; James McLellan; Gilbert Pook; Robert Allen; James Meagher, deckhands; Frank Haugherty, Rochdale, fireman.
Lost – T. W. Archer, 2nd Eng; W. Sharp; Joseph Cox, Blackpool; Joseph Gledhill, Heywood, deckhands.)
Notes
It was a case of every man for himself when SAN SEBASTIAN hit rocks and the crew were thrown overboard.
Four men died and the rest of the shipmates spent hours clinging to rocks before being rescued. The Skipper – who had been seen in hanging in the rigging – was stranded on rocks for 10 hours!
She struck rocks off the coast of the island of Islay, Argyllshire, on her way to the fishing grounds.
A crew member revealed what happened as the ship foundered.
“We felt the ship strike and could see we were on a reef. We launched the lifeboat but it crashed against the rail of the ship. Eight of us were thrown into the sea. The SAN SEBASTIAN had a dangerous list and although we were hanging on we were swept overboard. The last time I saw the Skipper he was in the rigging.”
“I got on the rocks and others came up in the darkness. We counted ourselves and found only 8 present. None of us were fully clothed and we were on the rocks for 7 hours.”
They were picked up by the Glasgow Steamer, Pibroch, and three bodies were later recovered.
Skipper Pook said he realised that survival was going to be a life and death struggle. He had been flung into the sea as the trawler toppled over.
“I was going round in circles and have been swimming about a mile. Then I reached a fairly big rock and, almost exhausted, pulled myself up. It was bitterly cold. I lay down but had to try and keep warm so I waved my arms and stamped my feet.”
While sitting there marooned, one of the ship’s lifebelts was washed on the rocks.”
“Then dawn broke and I saw a boat rescue the crew who had managed to reach the rock that SAN SEBASTIAN had struck. I tried to attract their attention but they were half a mile away and didn’t notice me.
When I had been on the rock 10 hours I saw a boat in the distance. I signaled it and they took me off.”
download the PDF BOT report into the stranding.
Click to enlarge images
S.T. San Sebastian FD126
Picture courtesy of John Clarkson
S.T. San Sebastian FD126
Courtesy of Elizabeth Shaw
Changelog
27/04/14: Information updated
16/02/2015: Added survivor account.
16/01/2017: Added BOT report.