In early March 1891 the Sunderland registered steamer Victoria, owned by Taylor & Sanderson and on a voyage from Hamburg to New York with sugar and a general cargo, including dynamite detonators, was disabled by heavy seas off the Butt of Lewis. With her pumps choked and engine room flooded, she drifted eastwards into the Pentland Firth before being spotted by a shepherd on 4th March, close inshore below the cliffs of Hoy. Longhope lifeboat was launched and put off in a severe South-westerly gale with mountainous seas. By the time she reached the casualty, the Victoria was about a mile off Dunnet Head and it was impossible to get alongside to take off the crew because of the huge swell, but eventually a line was passed which enabled one of the steamer's lifeboats to safely ferry the crew of twenty-two men aboard the Longhope Lifeboat. The return voyage was exceptionally difficult as the lifeboat was crammed with crew and survivors and had to battle against a full ebb tide across the most dangerous part of the Pentland Firth. It was impossible to return to base at Longhope because of the continuing gale, so the Victoria's crew, including Captain Harrison, were landed at Herston in South Ronaldsay.
The derelict steamer finally drifted ashore at Scarfskerry and broke up immediately and with an explosion from the detonators, with wreckage and cargo being washed up along miles of coastline. Coxswain Benjamin Stout received the RNLI's Silver medal and a gold watch from the Emperor of Germany in recognition of the services rendered to the crew of the Victoria which had included eleven German seamen.
The Victoria was built 1882 by Short Bros., Sunderland. She was iron built and was 290'.6 x 40'.1 x 20'.2, (88m long by 12m wide). She was rigged as a brigantine, and filled with two compound surface condensing engines, the diameter of the cylinders being 34 and 64 inches respectively, with a length of stroke of 42 inches, and of the power of 200 horses combined. She was registered at the port of Sunderland, her official number being 85,022, and her tonnage, after deducting 731.47 tons for propelling power and crew space, was 1,396.54 tons, registered.
A copy of the official Board of Trade Wreck Report can be found here.
Today what remains of the Victoria lies about 400m to the west of the entrance to Scarfskerry Haven. She can be dived from the shore and combined with a dive over the remains of the Linkmoor, on the way back in to the Haven. Wreckage lies scattered in a general depth of about 10m and includes some admiralty anchors and a large cylindrical structure standing about 4m high.
The derelict steamer finally drifted ashore at Scarfskerry and broke up immediately and with an explosion from the detonators, with wreckage and cargo being washed up along miles of coastline. Coxswain Benjamin Stout received the RNLI's Silver medal and a gold watch from the Emperor of Germany in recognition of the services rendered to the crew of the Victoria which had included eleven German seamen.
The Victoria was built 1882 by Short Bros., Sunderland. She was iron built and was 290'.6 x 40'.1 x 20'.2, (88m long by 12m wide). She was rigged as a brigantine, and filled with two compound surface condensing engines, the diameter of the cylinders being 34 and 64 inches respectively, with a length of stroke of 42 inches, and of the power of 200 horses combined. She was registered at the port of Sunderland, her official number being 85,022, and her tonnage, after deducting 731.47 tons for propelling power and crew space, was 1,396.54 tons, registered.
A copy of the official Board of Trade Wreck Report can be found here.
Today what remains of the Victoria lies about 400m to the west of the entrance to Scarfskerry Haven. She can be dived from the shore and combined with a dive over the remains of the Linkmoor, on the way back in to the Haven. Wreckage lies scattered in a general depth of about 10m and includes some admiralty anchors and a large cylindrical structure standing about 4m high.