Minimum number of divers: 6
Max Depth - 38m
Tonnage - 1831
Length - 265
Date sunk - 28 Oct 1917
Type of vessel - Steam Ship
How sunk - Torpedoed
Former names - Kirkstall ex Lady Olivia
Wreck height - 6m
The wreck was located by Jim Scott in the mid-1980s while he was carrying out a wreck
search in the English Channel. The wreck was located around 10miles SE of Poole (Dorset), and after
several dives on the the site, the ships bell was located and recovered
with the name Baron Garioch, thus providing positive identification
of the wreck.
The Baron Garioch was built in 1895. The owners at the time of the loss were H.Hogarth & sons of Glasgow who were compensated for the loss by Lloyds of London.
She was one of the many
merchant navy vessels which, at the start of WWI, were commissioned by the Royal Navy to help in war effort. On the 28th October
1917, while en route from Calais to Liverpool, she was spotted by the crew of
a German Submarine (conflicting reports name either the SMU UB63 or the UC32) which was patrolling the English
Channel. She was torpedoed approx. 5 miles SE of Anvil Point. 2 lives were lost.
The wreck now lies on the seabed in 38 meters and is almost upright.
The barrel of her gun lies just off the stern. A brass letter "N" was recovered from the wreck in 2012. |
