St Sunniva – Aberdeen’s most beautiful ship?
Of all the outputs of Aberdeen’s prolific shipbuilding industry, St Sunniva may have been the most beautiful, combining the elegance of a luxury yacht with the practicality of a passenger and cargo ship. But as IMarEST’s History Society reveals, her story was to end in tragedy.
St Sunniva, built in 1931 by Aberdeen’s Hall, Russell & Co., to replace a vessel of the same name which had run aground in fog at Mousa, Shetland in 1886, is to my mind the most beautiful ship ever built in that city. Her fine lines, clipper-style Aberdeen bow, bowsprit, raked masts, gilded scroll work and the figurehead of the northern saint, St. Sunniva, with her arm outstretched as if blessing the sea beneath her, make quite an impression.
Robert Straughton, Ferry and Coastal Correspondent in the Sea Breezes magazine of July 2011, obviously agreed. He wrote: “..an image of one that is as close to perfection as you are ever likely to see. The North Company’s St Sunniva. Doesn’t the very sight of her brighten your day?”
With deckhouses, rails and gratings all polished teak, and the hull a brilliant white, St Sunniva was a passenger/cargo ship in the guise of a luxury yacht. Built by Hall, Russell & Co for the North of Scotland, Orkney and Shetland Steam Navigation Co, Aberdeen, St Sunniva was deployed on the Leith/Aberdeen/Lerwick summer service, and as required in the winter months. The ship could carry 380 passengers and cargo, and hidden from view were portable cattle and sheep stalls in the hold for the Aberdeen to Lerwick service, while sometimes used by fishwives travelling to Lerwick following the herring, rather than livestock. The first-class accommodation was luxurious, the saloon was panelled in light oak, with the coats of arms of Aberdeen and Norway engraved in a gold setting on the panelling.
The Shetland News reported that “As seen at sea, she is a most graceful model and appears to walk the waters like a thing of life and her comfortable fittings are admired by all who have voyaged in her”.
A large crowd of spectators gathered on April 2nd, 1931 to witness the launch of the new ship - 252 feet long, 35 feet beam, and 15 feet depth, with a gross tonnage of 1,368 tons. St Sunniva was fitted with a triple expansion, 3-cylinder steam engine, 255nhp, and two single ended boilers operating at 222 psi, and single screw, capable of a top speed of 15 knots. She was classed +100A1 by Lloyd’s Register of Shipping.
The war years
In August 1939, the ship was requisitioned by the Admiralty, initially deployed as a guard ship before beginning duties in at Scapa Flow, Orkney in October 1939, taking part in the Norwegian Campaign. In September 1940, St Sunniva was converted to an accommodation ship and two years later converted again, this time to a convoy rescue ship.
On 2nd January 1943, St Sunniva sailed out of the Clyde, Glasgow on what was to be her final voyage. On 21st-22nd January 1943, while serving as a convoy rescue ship with a transatlantic convoy, she disappeared without a trace off Sable Island, Nova Scotia, Canada. It is thought that she was overcome with ice, capsized, and sank. In heavy seas and severe low temperature conditions, ice can form on the decks, deckhouse and rigging, making the ship top heavy and unstable. All 64 hands were lost.
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Main image: Painting of St Sunniva
Artist: Rob Andrew
