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Wreck, Inganess Bay

The identity of this wreck seems to have been much disputed but a plausible explanation, confirming that of Ian Balcombe HY4708 : Wreck of the Juniata, Inganess Bay, is provided by several correspondents here Link

R N Baird provided the following information in his post of 06 September 2007:

'The tanker Sprucol was built for the Admiralty by Short Bros, Sunderland in 1918. She had two screws and was powered by two Bolinders 8-cylinder oil engines, which gave her a speed of 9.5 knots. She was renamed Juniata in 1920 when acquired by the Anglo-American Oil Co. Ltd. In July 1934 she was sold to the French company Ste. Auxiliare de Transports, but in 1936 Anglo-American Oil bought her back again. On 17 April 1940 she was sunk as a block-ship in Water Sound, as part of No.4 Barrier, east of the Churchill Barrier linking the islands of South Ronaldsay and Burray. The wreck lay in the northern part of the channel, in the shallows of Burray, and remained there until July 1949, when she was raised for scrapping. It was found that her condition would not permit towing her to a shipbreaking yard, so she was towed to Inganess Bay and beached. Some scrapping work seems to have been carried out there, as the stern section has been separated from the wreck, leaving only the bow section still visible above the surface, only a short distance out from the sandy beach off the end of the main runway at Kirkwall airport.'