Читать книгу Into the Abyss. Diving to Adventure in the Liquid World онлайн

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Just identifying the wreck and learning its story had brought the wreck to life for me. No longer was it a mangled pile of junk on the seabed. I could tell where the vessel had been built and by whom. But the most intriguing aspect of all was the tale of how this vessel came to lie at the foot of Slains Castle.

The SS Chicago had been a Sunderland registered schooner-rigged steamship owned by the Neptune Steam Navigation Company. She had sailed on 9 October 1894 from her homeport of Sunderland bound for Baltimore with a small general cargo of 130 tons.

She had safely run up the east coast of England and then moved past the Firth of Forth and on to Dundee and the River Tay. Moving onwards up north, Aberdeen had passed by on her port beam. Shortly after midnight she passed Cruden Bay and the feared Cruden Skerries, a very dangerous collection of rocks and reefs, already a graveyard for many a ship. A stiff southerly wind was blowing, helping her northerly progress.

The Second Officer, who was on watch, saw an unidentified light ahead and called for the Captain to come to the bridge. Suddenly it was realised that they were heading for rocks and the shore. The engines were put full astern – but it was too late. Her momentum and the southerly winds contrived to drive her onto the rocks right beneath the Castle.