An Account of the Wistow Hall Shipwreck

Image created for creatative purposes by Cruden Bay Life

Wistow Hall

The Buchan coast between Slains Castle and Buchanness, with its towering cliffs and jagged rocks has always been an area dreaded by shipping in winter, particularly before the invention of wireless and radar.

Slains Castle. now roofless and gaunt, still towers above the perpendicular cliff face, its seaward wall almost a continuation of the rock face, where on a dark night one could well imagine Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” silhouetted through a blind window space. Dr Johnson visited here on his “Scottish Tour”. He wrote, I would not, for my amusement, wish for a storm; but as storms wished for or not, will sometimes happen, i may say, without violation of humanity, that I would willingly look out upon therefrom Slains Castle”.

Dr Johnson’s wish would have been gratified if he had been in the castle in January, 1912 when a disastrous storm ravaged shipping along the East coast. There were many shipwrecks at that time, the most tragic occurring at North Haven, a rock bound, narrow inlet two miles North of Cruden Bay. There “Wistow Hall”, a steamer of the Hall Line, was wrecked with grievous loss of life on the morning of Thursday, 18th January, 1912.

The newspapers on Friday, 19,th January, carried bold headlines about the terrible storm. The local newspapers dealt mainly with the “Wistow Hall and gave detailed accounts of the happenings, including interviews with the Captain, a crew member, the Coastguards, and locals who were actually witnesses of what took place that dreadful morning.

On Tuesday, 16th January, 1912, the Wistow Hall, a 3000 ton cargo steamer of the Hall Line of Liverpool, left the River Tyne bound for Glasgow in ballast. This entailed going up the East coast of Scotland and round the North by the Pentland Firth at a time of year dangerous for shipping. One thousand tons of coal were loaded at Jarrow, and no other cargo was carried.

The Wistow Hall was under the command of forty-three-year-old Captain W Stoddart, who had taken over temporary command from the usual captain who was ill. The crew numbered fifty-seven with the possible addition of a pilot, and consisted of fourteen Europeans and forty-three Lascars. These Lascars were recruited in India and were cheap labour. They were recognised as satisfactory seamen in normal conditions but suspect in emergencies.

Rough seas had been experienced along the whole East coast for some time, and the Wistow Hall met the full force of the South East gale soon after leaving the shelter of the Tyne. Early on the Wednesday morning, heavy seas broke over the vessel, killing two of the crew and injuring the Captain so badly that he was confined to his cabin until the ship wreck.

The gale force wind from the South-East continued to increase in strength, and extensive damage was soon caused to the superstructure as the seas washed over the vessel, which was labouring stern to the gale.

One of the hatch covers was blown off, and the water was now flooding the hold. The tall, erect funnel was soon carried away, and the situation was indeed desperate when the fires were extinguished, and the doomed Wistow Hall was drifting helpless before the storm. Some time on Wednesday afternoon when somewhere off Girdleness, distress rockets were fired and fires lit.

As was the custom during stormy weather, all the safety services on the coast were on a round-the-clock “bad weather watch”. A Mr Batty on Coastguard Lookout near Whinnyfold, first spotted the distress signals through the storm about two o’clock on Thursday morning. About five o’clock the Port Erroll Life Saving Apparatus with the Rocket Apparatus, under the command of Mr Holland, was called out to take up station at Whinnyfold as it appeared that the vessel would founder on the dreaded Skares of Cruden, the graveyard of many fine ships.

However, perhaps because of an out-flowing tide, the helpless hulk cleared the reef and remained afloat, being driven Northwards, past Cruden sands, which might have given the crew some hope of survival had the ship grounded there. She escaped the towering rocks under Slains Castle perched high in the darkness, and the high island rock of Dunbuy.

Inevitably, the end had to come. About eight o’clock as darkness began to fade, the Wistow Hall struck the Mussel Craig, a projecting busk of rock some twenty yards off the cliffs just north of the Bullers of Buchan but the force of the wind and the savagery of the waves lifted her round Blockie Head into North Haven and threw her on to the base of the Tempion, a huge tooth-like mass near the shore.

Meanwhile, the Life Saving Brigade had followed the masthead light of the ill-fated vessel barely visible through the storm, along the coast from Whinnyfold. It took up its position on the cliff top overlooking North Haven. However, although two lines were fired across the wreck, because of the strength of the storm, they could not be made fast.

No other means were available to succour the crew of the doomed vessel. The Port Erroll Lifeboat Coxswain William Tait, could not be launched, so fierce were the seas driving into the mouth of the harbour. The Peterhead Lifeboat, though it was able to take to the water in Peterhead bay, could not get beyond the partly completed breakwaters and had to dock at the Barge Jetty on the opposite side of the Bay from where it was launched.

The scene at North Haven was harrowing in the extreme. Through the half-light of the dawn and the flying spray and spume, crew members of the Wistow Hall could be seen clinging to what remained of the rigging of the wreck to be quickly swept into the inferno as the vessel began to break up. News of the disaster had spread, and many of the people living in the neighbourhood braved the elements and lined the shore, anxious to lend any help they could by snatching bodies, dead or alive, from the waves. Some of the helpers even risked their own lives by wading waist-deep into the surf to retrieve bodies.

So fierce was the storm at the time the vessel struck, that a hatch cover was tossed almost to the top of the Tempion. Soon spars, ropes, and broken timber littered the little bay, and among all this the bodies of members of the crew, some dead, some just alive desperately trying to reach the shore, a scene which would remain in the memories of the onlookers all their lives.

Of the fifty-seven sailors who left the Tyne some two days previously, only three lascars and the Captain were dragged from the waves alive. Captain Stoddart died from his injuries a few days later. The bodies of the living and the dead were carried up the narrow path from the shore, through the narrow, low bridge under the Ellon – Boddam Railway to the little hamlet of North Haven. The living were cared for by the tenants of the houses, and the dead laid out in the tiny Mission hall.

The bodies of the Lascars recovered from the sea, were buried in the local Parish Churchyard, and a granite monument was erected through public subscription. The bodies of the Officers were buried in the Churchyard at St James Episcopalian church, overlooking Cruden Bay.

The wreck of the Wistow Hall was not the only disaster that occurred that unhappy week. A few days previously, the Buckie fishing boat, “Sublime”, was wrecked off Portgordon with the loss of the crew. More fortunate was the crew of the Dundee trawler “Clio”, as they were able to scramble ashore when their boat washed on Cairnbulg reef on 14th January. On 17th January, the “Frederick Snowdon”, a 431-ton steamer, owned by Aberdeen Coal Company, went down off Whinnyfold, with the loss of fourteen of a crew. On the same day, it was reported that the Aberdeen steamer, “Altire,” was almost ashore near Yarmouth. About this time, also the steam trawler, “Eclipse” of Peterhead, went ashore on Aberdeen beach. Fortunately, the crew of nine were rescued by the Aberdeen Lifeboat.