Gwladmena

Shetlopedia - The Shetland Encyclopaedia

The Gwladmena (alternatively G W Ladmena or Gwladmeena), (formerly Mary Hough and Maggie Warrington), an iron hulled steamship laden with a cargo of coal, 220ft/67.05 metres L x 30 ft/9.14 metres B x 13 ft 1 in/4.9 D metres, 928 GRT/539 tons, two boilers, 136 hp, built 1878 R. Irvine & Co. West Hartlepool, England, owner Stoue & Rolfe, Liverpool, England, Captain F. Wood, sixteen or twenty two crew (the available records are in dispute).

This vessel in convoy in passage from Methil, Fife, Scotland, for Lerwick was run down and sunk by the S.S. Flora of Esbjerg, Denmark in Brei Wick on January 2nd 1918. All on board were saved.

The wreck was surveyed on June 29th 1988 at 60 08 24N, 001 07 48W, and was reported as being sitting upright on a sandy bottom in no less than 35 metres of water, with upperworks, mast and propellor removed, but with a gun still mounted at the stern. The bell engraved Maggie Warrington (original name) is known to have been recovered.

In a Receiver of Wrecks amnesty in 2001 items which had been recovered from the seabed and were believed to belong to this wreck, were handed in from four sources. Comprising:

i) One lump of coal.
ii) One pump valve.
iii) One porthole; one filler cap; one portion of a sextant, three bottles.
iv) One ship's log (Little Cherub type, gauge end only).