Ocean Wayfarer

Vessel name on Arrival: Clan MacQuarrie

Original Builder: Todd-Bath Iron & Shipbuilding Corporation of Portland East, Maine

Original Yard No: 19

Official Number: 168636

Vessel Type: cargo

GRT: 7178

Year Built: 1941

Arrival Date: 29/10/1953

Breakup Started: 30/10/1953

Date First Beached: 29/10/1953

Date Breakup Completed: 08/10/1954

Draught For’d: 11' 03"

Draught Aft: 13' 03"

Name Changes:

1942  :  Launched as the first of the 'Oceans' of WWII, on behalf of the British Government under the Management of  the Thomson Steam Shipping Company of Cardiff.

1951  :  Acquired by Clan Line Steamers Limited of Glasgow.

Other Information:

 

Launched  :   16-08-1942                                        Completed  :   September 1942

L.O.A.  :   134.6 mts.                                L.P.P.  :  126.8 mts.                                             Beam  :    17.4 mts.

Propulsion  :   Triple Expansion Steam Reciprocating Engine based on a design by the North Eastern Marine Engineering Company Limited of Sunderland, manufactured by tghe General Machinery Corporation of Ohio.

Normal Service Speed  :  11 knots.

In January 1953, whilst on a passage from Dundee to Glasgow, North-about, the Clan MacQuarrie, like many other vessels, ran into trouble on 31st January when she encountered a particulary bad piece of weather and ran ashore, grounding hard on the North-West shore of the Island of Lewis, near the small township of Borve.  Many other ships around the coast got into trouble in severe gale conditions, and with winds gusting at over 100 mph.

The township quickly set about arranging a breeches buoy between the shore and the Clan McQuarrie with some difficulty given the weather conditions, but they not only succeeded in making the link, all 66 crewmembers were taken off the stricken vessel successfully and even the ship's cat was rescued.

Further South, the Fleetwood trawler 'Michael Griffiths' went down some 7 miles South of Barra Head, with the loss of all 13 crewmembers.  Further South again, in the Irish Sea, an even greater tragedy was unfolding. This was the horrendous loss of the Irish Ferry 'Princess Victoria', with the loss of a further 133 lives.

Clan MacQuarrie remained held fast for the following two months until she was able to be refloated on a high Sprinf tide, on 16th March 1953, and towed away South to Troon for breaking at the WSSCL