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Edinburgh Live
Edinburgh Live
National
Neil Pooran

Five of the strangest shipwrecks which lie beneath the Firth of Forth

The waters of the Firth of Forth have been a popular shipping lane for centuries, so there are plenty of stories of ships which sadly met their end near Edinburgh.

There are hundreds of known shipwrecks beneath the waters between the Lothians and Fife.

Some are protected war memorials and many are the graves of people lost at sea.

Most of these are difficult to see unless you have diving gear and a boat to take you out.

But we've gathered together some of the stories behind shipwrecks in the Forth.

HMS Campania

(Wessex Archaeology)

This majestic ship began life as a Cunard liner, launched from Govan in 1892.

It once broke a record for a transatlantic crossing, completing the passage between New York and Ireland in less than six days.

Its impressive story continued after it was commissioned into the Royal Navy and turned into an aircraft carrier during the Great War.

Campania was one of the first ships able to launch aircraft from its deck, pioneering a vital aspect of naval warfare.

Just before the end of the war, it was moored off Burntisland and caught in a severe storm. It dragged anchor and struck another ship.

HMS Campania's crew had time to abandon ship before it sunk beneath the waves. 

Wessex Archaeology carried out a sonar survey of the wreck in 2004, finding it was surprisingly intact after nearly a century underwater.

Blessing of Burntisland - Royal treasure ship

This is one of the most well-known shipwrecks in the Forth, as well as one of the most elusive.

King Charles I was making a royal tour of Scotland in 1633 and was heading towards Edinburgh from Fife. Two ferries were organised for this - one for the King and another for his priceless possessions.

Charles was transferred on board safely but a sudden storm hit the second ferry, the Blessing of Burntisland.

On board was a fortune of Charles' clothing, jewellery and plates. The king could only watch as it capsized and sank, killing 33 passengers and crew.

Treasure hunters have tried to locate it for years, but the wreck of the Blessing is yet to be found conclusively.

Switha

There's not much left of this 54m-long ship which hit a rock in 1980. However you can sometimes see part of its hull poking above the waterline.

Edinburgh Boat Charters caught a glimpse of it in 2018.

What makes this unusual is that Switha was a fisheries protection vessel, tasked with keeping other boats safe.

It seems the crew miscalculated the waters near Inchkeith Island and hit and outcrop called Little Herwit Rock.

HMS Saucy

HMS Saucy hit a mine in the Forth (IWM (FL 8980))

They really knew how to name ships back in the day...

Saucy wasn't a risqué party boat, but an armed tug which came to a sad and unfortunate end during the Second World War.

It hit a mine in 1940, destroying the rear half of the boat and causing 21 deaths.

Divers say the bow is still relatively intact but much of the ship is below the seabed.

Kitty

German U-boats took a heavy toll on British shipping during the Second World War.

Their use during the Great War is less known but there were plenty of incidents where submarines caused havoc around Britain.

One such case involved the 181 ton fishing vessel Kitty, which was attacked by UC-42 on May 17, 1917 near the Forth.

The fishermen had to scuttle their boat 56km from St Abb's Head but all crew survived.

The captain and chief engineer were taken prisoner by the Germans and it's not clear what happened to them after this.

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