Lives of the First World War

About 4.30am on Friday 13th April the Pitstruan left Longhope, Orkney with the fishing trawler James Pitcher. The James Pitcher intended to fish off Noss Head and the Pitstruan escorted her to the fishing grounds and afterwards patrolled in the vicinity there for some time. About 9.30am the crew of the Pitstruan observed one of HM Drifters which was patrolling in the vicinity engage shooting and they concluded that it was at an enemy submarine. The Pitstruan, which had a gun aboard, at once made in the direction of the drifter, with the intention of rendering assistance. The drifter however signalled that she was shooting at mines and the Pitstruan then began to steam about on the lookout for mines. Two floating mines were noticed, one was shot off and they were in the act of turning round to shoot at the other when the vessel struck a submerged mine about midships. The vessel was completely blown to pieces with the exception of part of the bow. Trimmer James Marr who was standing in the bow when the explosion took place escaped the main force of the explosion and was practically unhurt. The bow immediately began to sink and as it turned over trimmer Marr jumped into the water. He then saw Lieutenant White come to the surface. The comms Bridge was the only thing to be seen afloat and they made for it and held on to it until they were picked up by a small boat from the drifter Lapwing. The Lapwing remained in the vicinity for some time and succeeded in picking up Ronald Richard Digby, aged 31, married, skipper, residing at Aberdeen. Digby was alive but he died about 1pm before the vessel reached Wick harbour. The bodies of four members of the crew were afterwards picked up by HM drifter Dourke and brought to Wick; William Joseph Barwood, 33, married from Aberdeen; Martin Welsh, 26, married, Aberdeen; Matthew Bruce, 18, single, South Shields and Albert Haycock, 20, single, signalman, Shropshire. These four bodies and that of the skipper were removed to the mortuary at Wick where they were examined by Doctor George Banks, and where they were identified by trimmer Marr. The bodies were subsequently removed to their respective homes for burial. The other members of the crew of the Pitstruan who lost their lives were; William Findlay, 37, widower, trimmer, Aberdeen; Charles John Duthie, 42, married, mate, Rosehearty; Alfred Gibson, 36, married, trimmer, Aberdeen; Alexander Wilson, 20, single, trimmer, Lossiemouth; Francis Wilcock, 38, engineman, Preston and Joseph Henry Amos, 20, telegraphist, London. Lieutenant White and trimmer Marr were the only survivors of the crew and they were removed to Bignold Hospital but as neither of them was seriously injured they were released after a few days detention. Possible position 58 28 50N, 02 56 50W. However there is a known wreck at 58 30 00N, 02 59 25W, this is 3.5 miles NE of Noss Head. Report by survey ship HMS Beagle in 1986 states: The site was examined on 8 October 1985 at 58 27 55N, 002 59 29W. NGR eastings 342175, northings 953405. Trisponder ranges: Noss Head 3703 metres; Toftcarl 9826 metres. Decca = [n scot] red c 22.7, green b 30.65, purple g 59.65. The least echosounder depth was 51 in a general depth of 56-57 metres. No scouring was observed. The side scan sonar indicated a height of 4.4 metres, and length of 43 metres. The vessel is lying with its keel on an orientation of 110/290 degrees. It is apparently broken up into two main parts, with a further small amount wreckage (height 1.8 metres) 70 metres south of the main wreck. The Pitstruan (A585) was built in 1913 by Halls for J.S.Doeg and was one of the first Aberdeen trawlers to be taken up for minesweeping on the outbreak of war. Admiralty Number 89, she was steel built, 35m long by 7m wide and 206 tons gross.

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