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Svecia: Reef Dyke, North Ronaldsay, Orkney, North Sea

East Indiaman (18th Century), Swedish East Indiaman (18th Century)

Site Name Svecia: Reef Dyke, North Ronaldsay, Orkney, North Sea

Classification East Indiaman (18th Century), Swedish East Indiaman (18th Century)

Alternative Name(s) Suecia 'treasure'; Reefdyke; Linklet Bay; North Ronaldsay Firth; Svecia (Suecia ?)

Canmore ID 102233

Site Number HY75SE 8001

NGR HY 79150 51525

NGR Description HY c. 791 518

Datum WGS84 - Lat/Long

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/102233

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
Canmore Disclaimer. © Copyright and database right 2024.

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Administrative Areas

  • Council Orkney Islands
  • Parish Maritime - Orkney
  • Former Region Orkney Islands Area
  • Former District Maritime
  • Former County Not Applicable

Archaeology Notes

HY75SE 8001 c. 791 518

N59 21 W2 22

NLO: Linklet Bay [name centred HY 778 542]

North Ronaldsay [name: HY 75 54].

Formerly also entered as HY75NE 27 and HY75NE 8002 at cited locations HY 78 55 and HY 7915 5189.

For associated salvage vessel (Dolphin), see HY75SE 8042.

The Svecia was an armed merchantman of 28 guns and 600 tons burthen belonging to the Swedish East India Company, based at Gothenburg. In 1739, on her second voyage, the Svecia went to Bengal to collect merchandise from the small Swedish factory there. In spring or summer of 1740 she sailed for home, laden with dyewood, saltpetre, silks and cottons, together with an unknown quantity of iron-bound chests believed to contain 'treasure' of one kind or another belonging to individual passengers and crew members. Contemporary accounts suggest the cargo was worth between 150,000 and 250,000 pounds sterling, then an enormous sum.

The voyage to and from Bengal was not without incident: of the 150 people on board, about 40, including the captain, Johan Rattenborg, died either on the journey or in Bengal. Command for the return voyage passed to Diedriech Aget, her second-in-command. The ship is known to have called at the Portuguese island of St Thoma in the Gulf of Guinea for provisions and water, and by mid-November 1740 she was rounding the north coast of Scotland, intending to pass between the Orkneys and Fair Isle. Instead of clearing the Orkneys, the ship was pushed southwards in a gale and became trapped in a fierce tide-rip between the islands of Sanday and North Ronaldsay, being driven helplessly onto a notorious submerged area of rock (the Reefdyke).

The ship stayed more or less intact on the Reefdyke for three days while the passengers and crew strove to save themselves; the islanders of North Ronaldsay made no attempt to approach the stricken ship although she was only 1 1/2 miles (2.4 km) off the SE tip of the island and in full view of the shore. They were denounced for this as barbarous savages by the survivors, but their boats were too small and the storm too severe to take the risk. Contemporary copies of letters by two of the survivors record that her longboat and yawl were launched with as many men aboard 'as thought proper to goe in them', but were swept away to the northward so that it was feared that all in them had perished, although the 31 people in them made a fortunate, if perilous, landing on Fair Isle, where the longboat was pounded to pieces by the breakers.

Those still on the Svecia then made a substantial float or raft from her topmasts and rigging, and, two days later, the principal officers and some of the crew (numbering thirty in all) took to this makeshift craft, probably with some of the valuable chests on board. This was launched at noon with the hope of landing on North Ronaldsay or Sanday, but, again, was driven northwards by the tide and never seen again. Local folklore recalls that the raft passed close to the shore, but was temporarily and fatally submerged in passing the old beacon on Dennis Head. It was then swept away northwards and lost to view.

The remaining 24 people on the wreck managed to cut away part of the deck and made a raft which was washed ashore on North Ronaldsay with only thirteen people clinging to it, the other eleven having been washed away. There were thus only 44 survivors of the 104 persons believed to have been on board at the time of the wreck

News of the wreck, and of the reputed value of the cargo, spread rapidly throughout the northern isles, and by Christmas, four weeks later, reports appeared in the newspapers in London, where the ship was heavily insured. James, Earl of Morton, was at the centre of this interest as hereditary Admiral of the Orkneys and Shetlands with an entitlement to a proportion any salvage. However, a fierce gale from the SE disturbed the remains of the wreck before salvage operations could start; hundreds of bales of Bengal cotton and silk were torn open and left on the shores of North Ronaldsay, forming piles 'higher than the pier of Kirkwall'. Representatives of the Earl of Morton and the Swedish company are recorded as recovering over 200,000 yards of cloth, despite the rival attentions of the islanders and incomers. Salvage continued over many months in 1741, and bickering among the claimants is recorded in the Morton Monuments [muniments] and elsewhere. In the same year, determined efforts by professional divers failed to locate the 'treasure' chests.

Further diving (by Rex Cowan) since 1975 has located the wreck site under a 'forest' of 9ft (2.7m) seaweed and demonstrated that the remains are concentrated within a smaller area than was thought probable. Items loaned to the exhibition included:

A 'billet' of dyewood 3ft 8ins (1.12m) long and weighing 30lb (13.6kg), so dense that it does not float,

Fragments of Chinese porcelain, probably of the Yung-Chen dynasty (1725-35),

A gold button,

Four Portugese copper coins of the period,

Two small cannon balls, and

A pair of brass navigational dividers.

[Summary list of artefacts and archive material appended].

NMRS, MS/829/38.

The 'Svecia' of Gottenburg on passage from Bengal to home with a cargo of dyewood, saltpetre, textiles and 'Treasure', was wrecked on Reefdyke in November 1740.

Site was located and dived during 1976-9 by R Cowan. Finds exhibited in Edinburgh in February 1979, included dyewood billet, Chinese Porcelain, button, coins, cannon-balls, brass dividers.

Information from Dr R G Lamb (Orkney Islands Archaeologist), 1979.

Quality of fix = PA

Horizontal Datum = OGB

Circumstances of Loss Details

-----------------------------

The East Indiaman, SUECIA, struck Reef Dyke and stranded. It later broke up. The vessel was en-route from Bengal to Gothenburg, Sweden. Her cargo included silks, porcelain, dye-wood and saltpetre.

Source: Shipwrecks of Orkney, Shetland and Pentland Firth.

Surveying Details

-----------------------------

31 October 1977. The site is reported to have been located by Mr R Cowan, at 59 21 00N, 002 22 00W approx. It is lying in 7.6 metres off the coast of North Ronaldsay, Orkney. The wreck is lying in a deep tangle of 9ft thick kelp. The bow half has been cleared.

Source: Maritime History, Volume V, No.1 p.86

Note; a display of documents and artifacts relating to this wreck was mounted in October 1978 - February 1979 in the Scottish Records Office, West Register House, Edinburgh.

Hydrographic Office, 1995.

(Classified as East Indiaman: no cargo specified, but date of loss cited as 18 November 1740). Svecia (Suecia?): this vessel was cast away on rocks off North Ronaldsay. Capt. Agget.

Registration: Gothenburg. 600 tons burthern. Length: 39m. Beam: 9m.

(Location of loss cited as N59 23.5 W2 25.0).

I G Whittaker 1998.

The current chart depicts the Reefdyke (name: N59 21 W2 22) as a N-S reef rising to a charted depth of 3.7m and set across the N part of the E entrance to North Ronaldsay Firth, to the SE of the island of North Ronaldsay.

The general charted depth within the firth is about 11m, and the seabed drops away rapidly to the E of the reef.

Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 22 November 2001.

HO chart no. 1234 (1982, revised 1993).

Material reported under RoW amnesty (2001):

A4485 1 length sanderswood.

NMRS, MS/829/77.

It is unclear whether the item reported under RoW amnesty was found during the excavations or was a later discovery, possibly loose on the seabed and thus not in direct association.

Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 24 September 2003.

NMRS, MS/829/77.

Activities

Note (1980)

Svecia, Reefdyke, North Ronaldsay

East lndiaman Svecia of Gothenburg on passage from Bengal to home with valuable varied cargo, wrecked on Reefdyke 17 40. The event and subsequent salvage attempts are copiously documented. The wreck has recently been located and items of cargo and equipment recovered.

RCAHMS 1980

(Stranded on the Orcades, leaflet to SRO winter exhibition 1978-9; OR 242)

Reference (2011)

Whittaker ID : 899

Name : SVECIA (SUECIA ?)

Latitude : 592330

Longitude : 22500

Registration : GOTHENBURG

Type : EAST-INDIAMAN

Tonnage : 600

Tonnage Code : B

Length : 39

Beam : 9

Position : Position Approximate

Loss Day : 18

Loss Month : 11

Loss Year : 1740

Comment : Cast away on rocks off North Ronaldsay. Capt. Agget

Reference (19 April 2012)

UKHO Identifier : 000493

Feature Class : Wreck

State : LIVE

Classification : Unclassified

Position (Lat/long) : 59.35000,-2.36667

Horizontal Datum : ORDNANCE SURVEY OF GREAT BRITAIN (1936)

WGS84 Position (Lat/long) : 59.34954,-2.36838

WGS84 Origin : 3-D Cartesian Shift (BW)

Position Quality : Unreliable

Depth Quality : Depth unknown

Water Depth : 3

Vertical Datum : Lowest Astronomical Tide

Name : SUECIA

Type : EAST INDIAMAN

Flag : SWEDISH

Tonnage : 600

Tonnage Type : Builders Measurement

Cargo : GENERAL

Date Sunk : 18/11/1740

Contact Description : Entire wreck

Original Sensor : Diver Sighting

Original Detection Year : 1977

Original Source : Other

Circumstances of Loss : **STRUCK REEFDYKE AND STRANDED, LATER BROKE UP. VESSEL WAS EN-ROUTE BENGAL TO GOTHENBURG, SWEDEN. CARGO INCLUDED SILKS, PORCELAIN, DYE-WOOD & SALTPETRE. (SHIPWRECKS OF ORKNEY, SHETLAND & PENTLAND FIRTH).

Surveying Details : **31.10.77 REPD TO HAVE BEEN LOCATED BY MR R COWAN, IN 592100N, 022200W APPROX. LYING 25FT DOWN OFF THE COAST OF NORTH RONALDSAY, ORKNEY. LYING IN DEEP TANGLE OF 9FT THICK KELP. BOW HALF HAS BEEN CLEARED. (MARITIME HISTORY, VOLUME V, NO.1 P.86). NCA - FOR FILING ONLY.

**A DISPLAY OF DOCUMENTS AND ARTIFACTS RELATING TO THIS WRECK WAS MOUNTED OCT'78 - FEB'79 IN W. REGISTER HOUSE, EDINBURGH.

POSITIONS BELOW THIS POINT ARE IN DEGREES, MINUTES AND DECIMALS OF A MINUTE

Charting Comments : POSN FOR FILING ONLY

Date Last Amended : 27/10/2000

Date Position Last Amended : 02/03/1982

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