Ben Doran
Shetlopedia - The Shetland Encyclopaedia
Photo from Shetland Museum and Archives.
The Ben Doran, A178, a steel hulled, coal fired steam trawler, one boiler, 50hp, 31.39 L x 6.19 B x 3.35 D metres, 155 GRT, built 1900 by Hall Russell & Co. Ltd. Aberdeen, Scotland for the North British Steam Fishing Co. Ltd. which became Richard Irvin & Sons Ltd, sold in 1912 to Thomas Davidson, Aberdeen, Scotland. Hired by the Admiralty from 1915-19 as a mooring vessel, then sold to owner at time or wrecking John Lewis Ltd. Aberdeen, Scotland. Captain James Caie, nine crew. This vessel ran aground on the Ve Skerries, west of Papa Stour, in the early evening of Friday 28th March 1930, whilst heading for the port of Scalloway for her normal weekend stopover. The Ben Doran, which was known as a 'Sunday Boat' because her skipper wouldn't fish on a Sunday, spent every second weekend in Scalloway, the other weekends being spent in her home port of Aberdeen.
It was believed that at the time of the grounding the crew would have been on deck gutting the catch, with the help of gas lamps, and the glare from these lamps may have hindered the vision of the man at the wheel. When the Ben Doran struck she had entered through a channel and so grounded in the middle of the skerries.
In those days before the all vessels carried radio transceivers, their only method of communicating their distress was to fire flares in the hope that they would be seen either from the shore, or from another vessel.
Later that night flares were spotted, but were mistaken for a chimney on fire on Papa Stour. Had it been realised that they were flares then there is a very good chance that the crew could have been saved because the weather at the time was reasonably benign, with a moderate Force 4 wind, although the visibility was poor.
The first official report of the grounding was at midday the next day when another trawler, the 'Bracken Bush A770' was passing on her way to Hillswick. As there was little she could do to help, being too large to approach the skerries, she proceeded to Hillswick as fast as she could from where the skipper telephoned the Coastguard station at Lerwick to say that a ship was aground on the Ve Skerries. Many believed with hindsight that if it had been a local boat which had spotted the wreck, they could have put into Papa Stour and picked up a small boat with which to approach the skerries and throw a line to the stricken crew.
When the report of the grounding came through to the Coastguard headquarters at Lerwick, the district officer, immediately went to Hillswick and commandeered the trawler 'Aurora' to take himself and the volunteers of the Lerwick LSA (Life Saving Apparatus, a line launching rocket which could shoot a line towards a casualty), to the wreck site in a bid to rescue the crew of the 'Ben Doran'.
In the meantime the news of the grounding had reached 'G.T.(Theo) Kay', Honorary Secretary of the Lerwick branch of the RNLI, (Although there was no lifeboat in Shetland yet, one was planned for lerwick in the near future). Theo Kay realised that a smaller haddock boat had more chance of getting close to the wreck than a large trawler, so with 2 others, Mr Dougal, head of the Fishermans Mission, and John Falconer, skipper of another trawler, he headed to Voe, where he enlisted the help of a haddock boat, the 35 foot 'Smiling Morn', from Burra, skipper John Jamieson, and crew, and proceeded to the Ve Skerries with a fourareen in tow, which they had borrowed from Mr Adie at Voe, stopping on the way at Papa Stour to pick up a local man, John Henderson, who had good knowledge of the skerries.
When they reached the scene of the wreck, about 5am on the Sunday morning, the sea condition had worsened with a Force 5-6 WNW wind breaking heavy seas over the skerries, and there was no way to get close enough to attempt a rescue. By this time other vessels including the 'Aurora', were on the scene but nothing could be done.
Witnesses told of seeing 7 men tied to the rigging of the 'Ben Doran' at this time. It is assumed that by then they were already dead, and although some witnesses said they saw movement from the crew, that was most likely just because of the movement of the wreck.
The sea state worsened over night and watchers from the shore saw the mast, with the men attached, fall at 2pm on Sunday 30th, in waves which they estimated to be 50 - 60 feet high.
At the time of the wreck a report was sent to Felixstowe where there was a flying boat base, and an aircraft was dispatched, believed to be with the intent to drop rafts. But as the flying boat came north it was forced to land at Invergordon because of bad weather, and by the time the weather improved to allow the plane to fly again, news had reached them that it was too late.
Although there was no lifeboat in Shetland at the time, the nearest lifeboat, at Stromness in Orkney, 120 miles away, had been put on standby on the Sunday morning, but they weren't authorised to put to sea until the Sunday night, by which time it was too late.
Of the 9 crew, only 3 bodies were recovered. Two of those, J. R. Insh and J. Cormack, it was assumed had tried to make an attempt to swim with a line to the largest skerry 'The Clubb', in the hope of saving their shipmates, which would explain why onlookers saw only 7 men lashed to the rigging of the boat on the Saturday.
The first body recovered, that of James Mitchell, was returned to Aberdeen. The bodies of the other two were buried in Scalloway. A memorial to these two fishermen was also erected in the graveyard at Sandness.
Following this wreck a lifeboat was established at Lerwick and later at Aith.
It is worthwhile to contrast the wreck of the 'Ben Doran', A178, with that of the Elinor Viking, A278, which was also wrecked on the Ve Skerries in December 1977. But in that case a helicopter was available to effect a successful rescue, and all the crew were rescued in less that 4 hours from the time of the wreck.
In 1979 the Northern Lighthouse Board installed a light on the Ve Skerries.
Most of the information contained in this article comes from a BBC Radio Scotland program "The Other Trawler", broadcast about 1980, which was based largely on tape recordings made by Clement Williamson, who had interviewed witnesses of the wreck
