RMS Remuera

The RMS Remuera was built by William Denny Co. in 1911 for the New Zealand Shipping Co.  With twin screws and triple expansion engines her size of 11,445 grt, 485' x 62' x 41'  makes her one of the largest ships to sink off the North East coast of Scotland.  She was completed on 31 May 1911 and joined the NZSC fleet on 8 September 1911 for a total cost of £176,102 9s 4d.  Her role was to operate the UK/New Zealand round world route which she did with style and some excitement - she was the first British ship to travel the newly opened Panama Canal in 1914.

During WW1 she entered the service of the British government where she operated the same route but as a troop ship and military supply carrier.  She returned to the NZSC in 1920 where, after a full overhaul and refit (she was converted from coal to oil fired), she was returned to passenger service.  She continued to operate the round world route until 1939 when she was once again claimed by the British government to act as a troop ship and frozen food carrier.

She was lost on 26 August, 1940 at the end of her 4th wartime voyage from Wellington, New Zealand.  She was carrying 4,801 tons of refrigerated cargo and 1,646 tons of general cargo and had detoured away from the U-boat infested Channel to approach her destination, the Thames estuary, via the supposedly safer north of Scotland. 

She was approaching Rattray Head when she was spotted by German aircraft.  Four Heinkel 115 torpedo bombers from KuFlGr I & II/506 based at Sola See, Stavanger and eight JU88's from X-FliegerKorps Stab I & III/KG30 (Adler Geschwader) at Aalsborg in Denmark attacked.  She suffered a sustained bombing and strafing attack by the JU88's before being mortally damaged by a direct torpedo hit from one of the  HE115's.  All 93 crew and one gunner took to their boats and were saved, some by Fraserburgh lifeboat.

Her wreck lay undisturbed for almost 60 years until dived by a group of technical divers on 9 June, 2000.  The team, led by Rod Macdonald, braved 2m swells to dive her.  In good visibility, the team of Ewan Rowell, Rod Macdonald, Dave Gordon and Jim Burke descended the shot line to find large plates of wreckage at around 60m.  The wreck is lying on her port side, reasonably well intact but with her starboard side collapsed reducing her beam to around 3m.  Most of her superstructure has gone but she is still recognisable from photographs. 

The bow line is intact, with a massive anchor hanging towards the seabed.  Heading sternwards, her hull is fairly intact but flattened, here and there, massive cracks allow an uninterrupted view of her holds.  Her huge fore-mast lies out on the seabed.  Continuing back, her keel rises above her fallen in hull plates to around 50m below the surface, under the shelter of this massive overhang lie her boilers.  Around this area, the remains of her superstructure begin (we suspect much of it has been washed away by the storms and huge tide races experienced off Rattray Head).  Through broken and bent plates, recognisable components of the ship remain - port holes, frames, derricks and bollards.  Further back, her stern is badly damaged and laid open but her two huge props are still visible, one partly buried beneath the sand the other suspended above the seabed and covered in marine growth.

She is probably one of the most beautiful and still undiscovered wrecks off the Scottish coast but lies in a deep and very dangerous area.  Tides are extreme (the stream speeds and slack shown on the admiralty chart are woefully inaccurate) and the combination of Rattray Head's infamously rapid weather deterioration and her distant offshore position make her a serious undertaking for any diver.  Local knowledge and very good weather are pre-requisites.

Despite this, since our initial dive, we have clocked up another 20 or so dives and have now explored her quite thoroughly.  In 2004, a consortium of local technical divers purchased the remains of the Remuera, principally to protect her state and to dissuade would-be wreckers from plundering her remains - by making it clear that the consortium will prosecute any divers found taking artefacts from her.  We hope the old girl will continue to lie in peace for many more years to come.