Wilhelmina

Shetlopedia - The Shetland Encyclopaedia

The Wilhelmina, (alternatively Wilhemina, Wilhelmine or Wilhelminae), a barque, built of oak 1864/65, 350 net tons/454 gross tons, owner Schultz, Memel, Germany, (now Klaipeda, Lituania), Captain Rudolph Mooring or Moering, eleven crew. In passage from Granton, Scotland to Lisbon, Portugal with a cargo of 665 tons of coal, drove ashore in South Ramni Geo, Fair Isle in NE Force 9 wind and fog, on October 13th 1876, as a result of a navigation error and stuck fast. The crew were forced to take to the rigging.

At low tide, during the night, the mate, named Goerch, attempted to swim ashore, but perished. With the return of daylight one of the ship's lifeboats was noticed to have floated free and in to the geo, a crewman, Johann Erneuk swam out and brought her alongside the wreck, and all remaining ten crew were able to land themselves on the relative safety of a nearby rock, from where they were rescued by Fair Isle men with their own boats. Owing to the prevailing weather, the rescued men had to spend a total of eight days on Fair Isle before it was possible for them to travel onwards to Lerwick.

A attempt to salvage the cargo was subsequently made by men and the Star Of The West sent by the laird, John Bruce (3), of the Bruce of Sumburgh family.