More information : Wreck Site and Archaeological Remains:
23-MAR-1976 Position not investigated - close inshore. (1)
French vessel well dispersed, entangled with the wreck of the SOUTH AMERICA. (6)(7)
She was partly dismantled when she was wrecked, the remains of frames and plates are now found amongst the boulders. (8)
Wreck Event and Documentary Evidence:
Primary Sources:
'Curiously enough the circumstances surrounding the wreck of the ABERTAY are precisely the same as those attending the SOUTH AMERICA seven months ago. The former has run right alongside the earlier wreck, just as if she was berthed in a dock. She encountered very thick fog and, despite the best seamanship and calculation, the course was missed and she ran ashore. The crew were astounded to find themselves alongside a large steamer; they shouted but got no reply from the vessel that towered over them, and they took her for an abandoned wreck. The ABERTAY was badly holed aft and, fearing she would sink, the crew clambered aboard the other vessel. The Newlyn lifeboat was launched at 6am, and the Mousehole lifesaving apparatus was on the scene but not required. By daylight, seeing there was no danger, the crew reboarded and saved their personal effects. A Mr and Mrs Johns, who lived in a house only 200 yards away, heard her siren at 5am.' [reproduced in (5), source unknown but language analysis reveals it to be a contemporary source, perhaps that quoted below as at TC 17.10.1912]
'Two wrecks occurred on the Cornish coast during a fog early yesterday morning.
'In the first case the French steamer ABERTAY, from Lorient with pit props for Barry, went ashore in Boskenna Bay near Land's End, and was so near the wreck of another steamer, the SOUTH AMERICA, which went ashore at the same spot last March, that the crew were able to get on the deck of that derelict vessel.' (9)
Photograph of the ABERTAY next to the SOUTH AMERICA. (10)
Secondary Sources:
Wrecked in Boskenna Bay near Penzance. (3)
Originally registered in Grangemouth, 1888; sank following a collision between the piers of the Forth Railway Bridge, 1892 but refloated and repaired; to a Glasgow owner 1897, to Lorient 1903. Wrecked in Boskenna Bay 14 October 1912. (10)
Built: 1888 (2)(3)(4)(5)(10)
Built by: W Simon (2)(5); William Simons & Co. Ltd. (10)
Where Built: Renfrew (2)(3)(4)(5)(10)
HP: 106 (2)(5)
Boilers: 2 (2)(5)
Propulsion: Screw-driven, 3-cylinder triple-expansion engine (2)(5)
Official No.: 90904 (10)
Master: G Benoit (2)(4)(5)
Crew: 15 (2)(4)(5)
Owner: Bois et Chabois (2)(4)(5); Soc. Bois et Charbons (F Le Brise & Co. managers), Lorient (10)
Date of Loss Qualifier: Actual date of loss
Additional sources cited in Shipwreck Index of the British Isles:
TC 17.10.1912
LL 17.10.1912
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