Hamilton

The Hamilton was a small coastal steamship built at Bowling by Scott & Sons and launched on 19th October 1905 (Yard No 180). The steel hull measured (at loss) 97.5′ x 20.1′ x 8.2′ and her tonnage was 180 gross tons, 68 net tons. In 1908 she had been lengthened by 12.5′ from her launch length of 85.0′ adding 30 gross tons to her tonnage. She was powered by a compound steam engine by Gauldie, Gillespie and Co Ltd., Glasgow delivering 32 registered horse power.  Built for J Marshall and Son, Drummore she was first registered on 15th November 1905.  Her official number was 98334

In 1930 she was sold to Mr Hugh Wylie of Stranraer and later, in 1935 to Mr John Rainey of Larne before she was acquired by her final owners, the Shira Steamship Company (Colin McPhail) of Glasgow in 1938.

Four lives were lost when she foundered off Pladda on 16th February 1940. The fifth member of the crew survived. The Hamilton had departed from Ayr harbour late on Thursday 15th, bound for Campbeltown with a cargo of 130 tons of coal. This was a regular trip for the crew.  In charge was her master, George MacLean of Glasgow, who was the elder brother of the cook.

In the early hours of Friday 16th February fishing boats working off the east coast of Arran were alerted by her distress flares and sped to scene. Unfortunately, by the time they arrived, the vessel had foundered. First on site was the Dunure fishing boat the Veronica and her crew were able to recover one of the crew of the Hamilton, alive but exhausted. They had rescued the cook, Buchan MacLean of Rosehearty and, due to his condition, they decided to head for shelter in Lamlash and were able to land him to be taken to the Arran War Memorial Hospital.

The search was continued by the crew of the Campbeltown fishing boat Kingfisher who found the bodies of the skipper, George MacLean and the mate, George Downie. Other fishing boats working in the area carried out a co-ordinated search of the area but were unable to find the other crew members. It was later confirmed that the engineer, Robert Millar and fireman, John MacMillan were working in the engine room and probably went down with the Hamilton.

On the morning of her loss the weather was ‘thick’ with strong winds from the south and a heavy sea running. Piecing together all the information available it is likely that the Hamilton sank as a result of spray blowing over her port bow and entering the cargo hold, causing the cargo to shift. It was reported that she began to list to port shortly before she went down. The crew had less that 60 seconds to abandon ship before the Hamilton disappeared below the waves. The reported position off her loss by Lloyd’s was 1.5 miles south east of Pladda, which would put her somewhere in the 50-60 metre range also in an area of very strong tidal movement. 

A post script to this story relates to the impact of WW2 on the supply chain for basic commodities and the reliance on ships such as the Hamilton making perilous journeys delivering goods to remote communities around the coast of Scotland. More detail can be found in the cutting.

As a result of a 2023 survey a new wreck mark appeared on the charts east of Pladda.  This wreck, lying in position 55° 25.535’N, 005° 04.048’W, was dived for the first time by a team of divers from Wreckspeditions, Dunoon who reported the wreck of a small steamship lying upright in 64 metres with a least depth clearance of 55 metres.  While nothing was recovered to confirm the identity of the vessel the configuration and location of the wreck make it almost certain this is indeed the Hamilton.

We would like to thank Lloyd’s Register Foundation – Heritage & Education Centre for allowing us to reproduce documents from their archive in this article.