White Wife of Otterswick
Shetlopedia - The Shetland Encyclopaedia
According to local tradition (and thus published many times) The White Wife (or White Lady) of Otterswick is said to be a German lady.
According to her life records we have to say that Bertha is a British girl or more correctly a Scottish girl, "born in Grangemouth of German parents".
She was the figurehead of the steel barque Bertha built in 1892 by Grangemouth Dockyard Co., Grangemouth, as yard no. 163. Her dimensions were: 74,11×11,70×6,88 meters [248'2"×38'4"×22'4"] and with a tonnage of 1653 GRT (1499 NRT and 2600 DWT). She was launched at the shipyard of Grangemouth Dockyard Co. for Joh. H. Soost, Hamburg on July 6th, 1892 and assigned the official German signal RJQD.
She was named after Bertha, the eldest daughter of Joh. H. Soost, and this should be the proper name of The White Lady.
In 1899 she was sold to Captain M. Dietrich, Hamburg, and thereafter changed hands several times. In her great days until 1912 she did a lot of long distance runs such as 1904 from Lizard Point to Seattle in 154 days, 1906 from Lizard Point to Sydney in 117 days and again in 1909 in 114 days or in 1910 from Sydney to Falmouth f/o in 129 days.
In 1912 she was sold to Sweden changed hands several times and ended up with Förnyade Ångfartygs AB Viking, Gothenburg, for SEK 500.000. She was then renamed Bohus and assigned the official Swedish Reg. No. 5903 and signal KBCV. Captain at that time was Mr Ragnar Erik Nyberg, Stockholm. Bertha was bound to the Baltic Sea, mostly sailing in Swedish and Finnish waters.
On January 9th, 1924 (Meyer has April 22nd) she was sold to the Adler Reederei AG (Dönitz, Witt & Co.), Hamburg, for SEK 40.000. The intention was to use the ship as sail training school ship. She sailed from Gothenburg for Taltal in ballast under command of Captain Hugo Ferdinad Blume and run ashore on the Otterswick rocks in severe storms during the night of April 26th, 1924.
Despite all the bravery of the villagers from Otterswick, Yell, 4 young sailors lost their lives in that stormy night. Since then Bertha is overlooking the Otterswick coast and kept in order as a memorial by the local people.
For details of her records see:
http://www.bruzelius.info/Nautica/ships/Merchant/Sail/B/Bertha(1892).html
The record is correct in almost all details but gives the place of her wreckage as Otterwick / Orkney Islands instead of Shetland !
See also
- Bohus, on Shetland Shipwrecks.
Further reading:
Svenska järn- och stålseglare.
Båtologen Årg. 29-31 (1991-93).
Meyer, Jürgen: Hamburgs Segelschiffe 1795-1945.
Heinemann, Norderstedt, 1974. 4to, 296 pp, ill.
