Royal Navy Steam Pinnace

The following presents new data collected as part of a recent Historic Scotland funded project – the Scapa Flow 2013 Marine Archaeology Survey – which aimed to assess the extent and condition of some of the sites around Scapa Flow.

Vessel History

The site was dived by J Besant of Lyness in 1982, and bell was recovered with an Admiralty arrow, identifying the remains as a British steam Pinnace. It is unclear as to which ship the Pinnace was associated with. Although there is some debris surrounding the main area of wreckage the site is quite contained and likely falls within the confines of vessel dimensions.

As the remains are well broken up and as no artefacts identifying the remains were recovered it is not possible to provide further details regarding the provenance or date.

Diver Surveys

The wooden wreck lies on its port side on a sand and mud bottom in 14m of water in an area of slight tide.

There are numerous sections of wooden hull, rib remains, ceiling planking, frames and exterior planking of varying size within the confines of the main wreckage and scattered on the surrounding seabed. Some of the frames contain copper pins, and show evidence of double skin hull sheets – with diagonal inner sheets and fore and aft outer sheets.

The stern section is the most intact with the propeller shaft still in situ. Moving forward, the steel oil engine and steel boiler can be seen lying to port. There are several pipes and three steam valves aft of the boiler, and the remains of a water tank forward of the engine. Towards the bow there is a crane hook hole that would have been used to lift the vessel from a larger ship into the water

Side Scan Data

The side scan images show a 12m long contact standing approximately 2m proud of the seabed. The remains are oriented south southwest to north northeast with the bow to the northeast.

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