The San
Tiburcio was an 8,266 dwt British steam driven tanker built for the famous Eagle
Fleet in 1921 by the Standard Shipbuilding Corporation at Shooters Island, New
York. She was a sizeable vessel of 5,995 gross tons, some 413 feet long
with a beam of 53.4 feet and a draught of 31.1 feet.After sailing the world with cargoes of oil for 19 years she met her end, far from her normal trade routes around South America, in the Moray Firth in the north east of Scotland on 4 May 1940, in Britian's first year of the Second World War.
The San Tiburcio had by this time been chartered by The Ministry of War Transport and had sailed her tanks full of oil, from Scapa Flow in the Orkney Isles of northern Scotland bound for the port on Invergordon in the Cromarty Firth. With journey's end almost in sight she struck a contact mine laid three months earlier by U 9.
The explosion broke her in two. Both sections however remained afloat for enough time to allow all the crew to safely abandon ship into life boats.
Both sections of the
wreck lie close together in about 35 metres of water some 30 metres apart.
The underwater visibility here is usually fairly good and on a good day it is
sometimes possible to make out the outline of the other section. From time
to time divers lay a connecting rope from one section to the other to enable
both sections to be dived in the same dive.The history, sinking and dive details of the San Tiburcio are described in much greater detail in the book Dive Scotland's Greatest Shipwrecks.
Photograph courtesy of NMT