(Image: Doug Collinson)
In the midst of Scotland’s expansive River Clyde, off the banks of the town of Helensburgh, rusts the curious wreck of a merchant vessel known to locals as “the sugar boat”. Capsized and lying on her port side, the abandoned vessel is a well known landmark on this stretch of the Clyde, in Argyll and Bute, and doubtless appears for good reason on navigation charts. But what’s its story?
(Image: Doug Collinson)
It turns out that the rusting hull and superstructure marks the remains of a Greek sugar-carrying vessel, the MV Captayannis, which sank in the river in 1974 amid fierce storms. On the evening of January 27, 1974, the sugar boat was moored at the Tail of the Bank – an anchorage in the upper Firth of Clyde north of Greenock – when high seas caused the vessel to drag her anchor.
(Image: Doug Collinson)
In an effort to move the Captayannis to the more sheltered waters of Gareloch, the captain ordered that the engines be started urgently. But before they ran up to power, the sugar boat had drifted into the rugged anchor chains of British Light, a tanker ship owned by British Petroleum. Holed below the water line, the freezing waters of the Clyde flooded into the Greek vessel at an alarming rate.
(Image: Doug Collinson)
Realising the MV Captayannis was about to sink, the captain ordered that she be steered over a sandbar immediately east of the Tail of the Bank and beached. The move paid off and, heeled over, the 30-strong crew were able to evacuate onto the deck of the stricken vessel and await help, which came in the form of several pilot boats, a tug named Labrador and the Rover, which was operated by Clyde Marine Motoring.
(Image: Doug Collinson)
By the following day, the abandoned Captayannis had been thoroughly wrecked, rolling onto her port side, where she has lain ever since that evening in 1974. The sugar boat’s rusting hull and superstructure have become a Clyde landmark over the last 42 years, and parts of her wooden deck remain in remarkable condition given the length of time she’s lain there and the often inhospitable Scottish weather.
(Image: Jrproudfoot)
Though other parts of the wreck show signs of more significant deterioration, and most of her more valuable fittings have been plundered, the wrecked MV Captayannis has become a haven for marine wildlife and will likely remain on the sandbar for many years to come.
(Image: Fatspark)
Attempts to remove the abandoned vessel – which was launched as the Norden in 1946, have thus far proved fruitless, largely because her owners and insurers reportedly remain elusive and nobody has yet accepted responsibility for her disposal. A plan to blow up the wrecked Captayannis was also shelved due to its proximity to the nearby Ardmore Point bird sanctuary.
(Image: Bing Maps)
Lying at a maximum depth of just nine feet, the remarkably intact vessel has been described in the press as the Clyde’s most obvious wreck. As of 2005, the Rover, one of the rescue vessels involved in the incident, still plied the waters of the firth, wrote Clydesite Magazine.
Related: 11 Abandoned Ferries, Ocean Liners, Cruise Ships & Hovercraft
The post MV Captayannis: The River Clyde’s Wrecked Sugar Boat appeared first on Urban Ghosts Media.