The
Wallachia ranks alongside the mighty Akka as one of the most important of the
innumerable shipwrecks in the Firth of Clyde. At 259 feet in length she
can be easily explored in one dive and her fine lines, so distinctive of 19th
century steamships, appreciated. She is a relic from a bygone age, a
tantalising glimpse of the majestic days of steam.In September 1895 the Wallachia left Queen's Dock, Glasgow on a voyage to the West Indies. Her holds were full with a valuable cargo of coal, gin, whisky, beam building materials, books, stationary, glassware and earthenware and other goods destined to ease the rigours of life in the West Indies.
As she navigated in thick fog down the Firth of Clyde heading for the open sea she was rammed in the bows by a Norwegian steamer, the Flos which suddenly appeared out of the fog. 25 minutes after the ramming the Wallachia slipped under the dark waters of the Clyde. As she passed from sight tons of water made contact with her boilers causing a large explosion. The waters of the Clyde frothed and boiled as the water pressure forced air out of her hull.
She settled on an even keel in 34 metres of water but her mast rose to just one metre beneath the surface.
To reduce the danger to navigation hard hat divers cut her masts off. The wreck was then left to lie on the bottom in peace. Her memory passed and she disappeared from the Admiralty charts at the beginning of the last century. She lay forgotten in her watery tomb until sport divers investigating a fisherman's snag rediscovered her. Her holds are still full of hundreds of dark green McEwan's beer and stout bottles, the name of the brewery still clearly printed on the corks.
The history, sinking and dive details of the Wallachia are described in much greater detail in the book Dive Scotland's Greatest Shipwrecks.