S.S. Orchis, Her Loss and Discovery

S.S. Orchis, Her Loss and Discovery

Diving guides to the coasts of Britain provide a stark reminder to the devastation reeked upon this country's shipping by the Imperial German Navy during the first world war. By 1916 the rate of loss of merchant ships forced the government to take action to speed up their construction. To achieve this they provided several designs of deep water merchant men of simple layout to be speedily constructed at relatively low cost and in 1917 adopted several designs of coastal craft from private yards. One of these yards was that of R. Cock and Sons of Appledore in Devon, traditional builders of small sailing craft. They had branched out into steamers to meet the demands of war and had one vessel under construction, known simply under its yard number of 183. She was of 482 tons displacement, 45.6 metres long, 3.6 metres deep and with a beam of 7.8 metres. Her design met the governments criteria and was adopted as a standard with a further four being ordered. 183 was launched as the Orchis and completed and armed with a small stern gun before the wars end. Of her sisters the War Wharf was completed in 1919 as the Orleigh and the Ortona in the same year. A post war shipping depression delayed the completion of the fourth sister the Orenie until 1922 and the fifth and final sister until 1932 when she was completed as the motor vessel Ida Walters, which is believed to be still afloat.

One of Orchis' Sister Ships

Ownership of the four sisters remained with R. Cock and Sons, but they where chartered via Robinson, Brown & Co of Newcastle for the east coast trade. In 1932 the yard and its fittings was sold. The Orchis went to British Island Coasters Ltd, also known as the 'Teifi Steamship Company', of Cardigan for £3,100. They traded mainly along the Welsh and Continental coasts, although the Orchis was chartered out via the agents James & Co of Liverpool for carrying coal from east coast to south coast ports of England. She is known to have grounding once during her time in this trade, in March 1934 off Foreness Point, Kent. Left high and dry but undamaged she was refloated on the next hide tide.

Friday 29 November 1936 saw the Orchis in Par harbour, South Cornwall loading 500 tons of China clay bound for Dundee and Aberdeen. That evening her master, Captain W.J. Jones of Anglesey, met an old friend of his, the missioner of Fowey seaman's mission, Mr Metcalf, in the Seaman's Institute in Par. Here they chatted into the early evening when Jones left for his bed, he was due to sail early the next morning.

Shortly after 7:00 am the following day the Orchis left Par harbour on the morning's tide. Captain Jones set a course north east up the channel at a steady 3.5 knots into a strong south-westerly wind, with heavy seas and rain. The little ship appeared to be weathering the seas well until about one and a half hours after sailing when she was 4 miles south west of Polperro. One of her firemen, Charles Lambert, and other off duty members of nine man crew were in the galley preparing their breakfast (the ship carried no cook and each man prepared his own meals). Below Lambert's colleague, the ships other fireman B Connerton, was at work in the engine room. Suddenly the room began to fill with water from somewhere in the stern. Attempts to discover the leak failed and within ten minutes he was standing up to his waste in a metre of water, sufficient height to put out the ships fires. Captain Jones was on the bridge when he was told of the emergency and he realised that, robbed of the power that fed the ships pumps, he had no option but to order his crew to abandon ship. There was "a bit of excitement amongst the crew" as they assembled on the ships boat deck. This was positioned on the stern, which was sinking at an alarming rate. The speed of events meant that there was no time to collect personnel belongings and the men now stood in the clothes that they where wearing at the time, a few only in their underwear. Only one man braved it below decks to attempt to recover his belongings. Mr Yates, an able seaman from Dublin, managed to reach his case. But he was forced to abandon it as it filled with water and he retreated in fear of his life back above decks. The heavy seas made launching the lifeboat difficult but spurred on by the ever approaching waterline the men managed it in record time. Even managing to wave to a fishing boat for help. But as they tumbled into the small yellow 5.5 metre boat many of the men where beginning to get very cold. They pulled away from the sinking ship and had rowed only 45 metres when she "cocked her nose in the air and went down by the stern". The time was 9:00am, only a mere six minutes after the order to abandon had been given.

In the heavy seas Captain Jones found the handling of the heavy lifeboat difficult and its ill dressed occupants where soon drenched with freezing spray. Luckily the small fishing boat to which the crew had waved had seen their plight and had made its way to the lifeboat as quickly as possible. Its skipper, Mr Hocking of Mevagissey out fishing with his nephew, realised that without help the men in the open lifeboat would soon be in danger of their lives. With great difficultly he manoeuvred his boat alongside the yellow one and managed to get them from that boat into his. As urgency was the order of the day the lifeboat was cast adrift to drift ashore two days later below Tregantle fort. The Orchis' crew were made as comfortable as possible in the confines of the small fishing boat as it headed for Fowey. Hocking was not the only witness to the Orchis’ loss. The coastguard lookout at Polrun had also seen the drama and had altered the Fowey motor lifeboat. This was promptly got away but only arrived in time to meet Hocking's boat on her way in and escort them to the town quay.

Here the men where greeted by the cheers of onlookers and were taken to the Seaman's mission, where Captain Jones was again reunited with his old friend Mr Metcalf. He had heard the maroon calling the lifeboats crew. Realising that he was soon to have visitors he had set the missions caretaker to lighting its fires and by the time the crew arrived the building was warm. Here they where given a bottle of brandy, which "was gone inside two minutes". Within twenty five minutes every man had been rubbed down, changed into warm clothing and sat down to a hot meal. They spoke to the missioner about the fear that if the Orchis had founded at night they doubted if they would have survived and how they were now concerned about their jobs. In the harsh days of the 1930's their contracts had terminated when the ship sank, they where now unemployed.

That evening the five junior members of the crew (William Linklater and James Sullivan both of Blyth, ordinary seamen, H. Yates of Dublin, able seaman, B. Connerton of Newcastle and Charles Lambert of Blyth, firemen) where sent home by train, leaving their four officers (Capt. W.J. Jones of Anglesey, master, R. Maclennan of Stornoway, chief officer, H. Michael of Holyhead, chief engineer and Joseph Jones of Liverpool, second engineer) to face the enquiry into the ship's loss. This enquiry was to reveal nothing about the reason for the loss of the ship, concluding only the same as the Fowey Lloyds agent had on the night of her sinking. "Steamer 'Orchis' is sunk in deep water, about twenty fathoms (Thirty Six Metres). Salvage prospects hopeless. Cause of sinking unknown." Once this was completed the ships insurers paid, via the brokers Glanvill Enthaven, £5,000 for her and her cargo, as far as any one knew that was the end of the matter.

Diving the Orchis The Dudley Dolphin's, had dived in the Fowey area for many years from Talisman, the boat of the friend of the club's, Sid Hazelton. A friend of Sid's, Pete Watkin, skipper of the local fishing boat Endeavour One, told Sid that he had found a low pinnacle on his echo sounder near to a reef called Owen Rock. He thought that this may be the wreck of a destroyer that was allegedly sunk off Polperro during the second world war. Sid past the story onto the Dolphin's who decided to combine diving weekend with a spot of wreck hunting with their recently purchased magnetometer. On the 6 July 1986 the club set out from Fowey with a days diving and searching planned. Talisman, the faster of the two boats, arrived off Owen Rock first, located the site and anchored onto it to await the arrival of Endeavour One. To occupy the time whilst waiting one of the divers, Bob Round, decided to investigate the pinnacle with the magnetometer. After only ten or fifteen minutes a magnetic anomaly was located 200 metres from the pinnacle. The spot was marked with a light buoy, just as Endeavour One arrived on the scene. Pete manoeuvre up to the buoy and dropped his anchor, in what his echo sounder told him was the low pinnacle, 23 metres deep. Two divers from Endeavour One, Trevor Martin and Brian Gooch, quickly kited up and got into the water. It seemed a long way down the anchor line for 23 metres and when the two divers arrived at the seabed they found that it was in fact 41 metres, Pete had meant 23 fathoms ! They found themselves on a fairly flat rocky bottom. Through the superb vis their torch's lit up a forest of colourful fan corals, conger eels and other fish. But no wreck. They continued with the dive, swimming over superb wreck less scenery until the end of their no stop time when they surfaced. On the surface it was thought that the anomaly must have been caused by the magnetic nature of the rock from which the reef was formed.

That evening it was decided that one more dive should take place on the anomaly the next day. No one was sure if the buoy had dragged during the anchoring or if it was the rock that caused the reading and not a wreck that had lain outside the range of the divers visibility. The following morning saw the two boats off Owen Rock carrying out a magnetometer search around the position of the previous days contact. Again an anomaly was located and one of the boats, Talisman, anchored into it. This time it was the turn of Bob Round and Dave Biggs to be the first into the water. The rest of the group waited on the surface, unwilling to waste a dive on the off chance. As the two divers drifted down the anchor rope towards the anomaly the clarity of the water remained fine but the gloominess below them prevented them seeing what the anchor was caught in. It was not until they reached the seabed at 45 metres that they saw that it was hooked into the forward port side of the remains of the bridge of a small steamer. A row of seven portholes disappearing into the gloom in front of them and a ships lamp lay at their feet. The good visibility allowed them to see over her small forward hold and into the wreck's intact bow. They swam up and over the remains of the bridge where they could see boot soles and Captain Jones's sextant intermixed with the remains of the breakfast dishes left by Charles Lambert and his friends. Sitting astride the top of the bridge was the vessels steering motor which the two divers made a quick inspection of before swimming towards her stern. Behind the bridge the nature of the wreck changed. No longer intact the mangled remains of steel plate and girders jutted out at an angle from the line of her bow. The two divers swam along this wreckage through shoals of pouting and pollack until they reached its end. Marked by a single boiler, the remains of her engine and mangled propeller. Their bottom time up they returned to the anchor to begin a long ascent to the surface.

Bob surfacing with the cry of "Wreck, Get your a!@#'s down here !" caused wreck fever to break out amongst those who had remained on the surface and within seconds divers, led by the most experienced, where hurrying to don their gear. For a few minutes chaos reigned until the marshal managed to regain control of the divers who where all vying with each other to be first in the water.

Sid Hazelton and Bob Round
with magnetometer.

It was decided to make an attempt to identify the wreck and notes were taken of identifying marks from artefacts seen on the seabed. One of them was the remains of the brass column on which the ships wheel was mounted. This bore the legend Donkin & Co Ltd, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne along with a date 1917 and a serial number 3753/1. Armed with this information one of Saturday's divers, Brian Gooch, went to work on Monday morning with the motive of attempting to identify the clubs unknown wreck. Donkin & Co Ltd where not in the current telephone directory but they where in an old one. He dialled the number listed and received a reply. The company had been taken over by Clark Chapman, but the old number had been retained. They still had records going back as far as 1917 and from the serial number they traced the columns buyers as a southwest shipbuilders, R. Cock & Co. It had been dispatched on 30 January 1917 for installation into a vessel whose yard number was 183. Another phone call to Michael Guigan, a North Devon maritime historian, identified 183 as the steamer Orchis. She had remained an unidentified shipwreck for less than two days. This identified the wreck to the satisfaction of the Royal Navy's Hydrographical Department and answering an outstanding query for them. They had searched for her with wire sweeps in April 1960 during the resurveying of the Britain's coastal waters. Their failure to locate her was because of confusion surrounding the exact position of her sinking. The coastguard gave it as 6 miles south east of St. Catherine's Light, the press as 4 miles south of Polperro and Lloyds as 5 miles south west of Pencarrow Head. It was the latter position that the Navy searched around. The Orchis’ final resting place is actually 3 miles south east of Pencarrow Head, 4 miles away.

The Orchis lies in position near Owen Rock standing 4 metres proud of a low rocky reef in between 42 and 48 metres of water in an area that is not troubled by tides of more than a knot. Visibility is usually good, allowing sight of the rich marine life that inhabits the wreck She is intact, from just behind her bridge to her bow, still pointing up channel on bearing of 60⊦dm; where she was bound. But astern of this point it is a different story. The trail of destruction followed by the divers was witness to the speed and violence of the Orchis’ sinking. Her stern hit the seabed first causing this damage and also breaking her back just behind the bridge. From this point the remains of her stern jut out to starboard at an angle from the line of the ships hull. Leading to the ships single boiler, engines and broken propeller. This damage was the saving of the hull forward of this break as the stern had absorbed the violence of the impact with the reef, allowing the bow to settle gently onto the seabed and thus to remain intact. The Orchis remains a relatively safe and friendly wreck for the depth of water in which she lies, small enough for a considerable part of her to seen in a no stop dive.

David Parham