Wrecks of the Forth by Geoff Hide

Wrecks of the Forth by Geoff Hide

The Royal Archer and Royal Fusilier

The thundering noise of the ships engines was all that could be heard as Thomson, the second engineer aboard the Royal Archer, eased his way carefully down the propeller shaft service tunnel to inspect the bearings. In the tunnel, not quite high enough to stand up, it was dark, noisy and oily. Suddenly the whole tunnel shook violently and Thomson, aware that all was not well, scurried aft to the shaft tunnel escape hatch. Captain Riper, master of the Royal Archer, was just leaving the bridge to go to his cabin when a terrific explosion occurred towards the stem of the ship. Huge lumps of metal flew high into the air, three lifeboats were smashed and the wireless room was enveloped in clouds of steam from burst steam pipes. The Captain ordered the ships siren to sound and the launch of the remaining 3 lifeboats.

The first of these capsized as she was launched throwing William Rendall, the ships quartermaster, into the sea. He drifted away to the stem of the vessel and, unable to swim, was supported by his lifejacket.

Meanwhile, other crew members assisted 2nd engineer Thomson from the prop shaft tunnel escape hatch and helped the Chief engineer, Loudon, who had had his leg fractured by the blast in the engine room, down into the remaining lifeboats. Twenty eight of the twenty nine crew members got into the lifeboats safely and the final member, quartermaster Rendall, was picked up by a passing trawler after 20 minutes in the water.

The Royal Archer disappeared below the surface of the Forth some 30 minutes after the explosion had occurred. Thus was the fate of the steamship Royal Archer, sunk by a mine on Saturday 26th February 1940, almost fifty years ago, some 15 miles west of the May Island. The Royal Archer was built at Greenock in 1928 and was a passenger steamer of 2266 tons.

She was owned by the London and Edinburgh Shipping Company and, alongside her two sister, ships Royal Fusilier and Royal Scot, she sailed up the East Coast of Britain ferrying passengers and cargo between London and Leith.

The Royal Archer was not the only London and Edinburgh steamer to sink in the Firth of Forth. Her (almost) identical twin ship, the Royal Fusilier, sank on June 3rd 1941 after she was bombed during an air raid. The Fusilier, 1OOm long and 2 187 tons, sank some 7 miles North East of the Bass Rock where she can still be found today.

Wreck Sites

The Royal Archer

The Royal Archer lies 3-4 miles offshore between Leven and Elie on the Fife coast. She lies in 30 metres of water and is fairly broken up. However, quite large recognisable chucks of her still remain. This is especially the case at the stem where it is possible to swim in amongst the plumose anemone covered gangways and hand rails. The wreck is not charted but if you want to dive her some of the local boats know where she is.

The Royal Fusilier

The Royal Fusilier lies some 7 miles North East of the Bass Rock in 45m of water.She lies on her port side and is, unfortunately, buried deep in the silt. She protrudes only 3m above the silt level although it is possible to see quite a lot of the side of her superstructure despite this. She seems to be relatively intact as far as can be determined from what little of her is exposed above the silt. Some brass portholes were noticed on her when we dived her!

The Royal Fusilier is very difficult to find as she is far offshore. Along with other members of Edinburgh University SAC, I dived her from a fishing boat which we had hired for the day from Dunbar. Most of the local fisherman can find her so you would be well advised to ask around at Dunbar or North Berwick.

If you want to I have enclosed some transits which I took from the fishing boat however they have not been successfully tried. I would recommend a very sensitive liquid crystal/ paper trace echo sounder preferably a magnetometer before contemplating an inflatable dive on her. She lies in a very exposed position and sometimes times streams can be experienced in this area so appropriate care should be taken when diving her.

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