Maritime record 13929 - ELCANO: A' CHREAC, STORNOWAY, LEWIS

NB42NE 8002 c. 497 287
N58 10.6 W6 15.5

NLO: A' Chreac [name: NB 497 287]
Gob na Creige [name: NB 499 291]
Stornoway [name: NB 425 330]
Cala Steornabhaigh [name centred NB 431 315].

31 December 1879, ELCANO, 25 yrs old, of Liverpool, wooden barque, 847 tons, 16 crew, Master J. Whiteside, Owner H. Nichol & others, Belfast, departed Belfast for New York, in ballast, wind SW6, stranded, total loss, Hen and Chickens Rock, Lewis, Hebrides.
Source: PP Abstracts Returns of Wrecks and Casualties on Coasts of the UK 1879-80 (1881 [C.2906] LXXXII.889).

Stornoway, Dec. 31, 1.20 p.m., ELCANO barque, of and from Belfast, Whiteside, for New York, in ballast, got ashore, near the Hen and Chicks, this morning. Lies in a dangerous position.
Source: Shipping Intelligence, LL, No. 20,493, London, Thursday January 1 1880.

Stornoway, Jan. 1, ELCANO, from Belfast for New York, reported by telegraph as having struck on the Hen and Chicks, was immediately run ashore in a dangerous and exposed position, where a strong gale will very probably break her up. The master awaits instructions from owners before taking any steps as to salvage of vessel or materials, and has, it is stated, refused an offer to bring his ship into a place of safety on the principle of no cure no pay.
Source: Shipping Intelligence, LL, No. 20,497, London, Tuesday January 6 1880.

Stornoway, Jan. 3, ELCANO barque, of Belfast, Whitehead, from Belfast for New York, in putting back from the Atlantic through stress of weather, struck on the half-tide rock off Chicken Head, on the east side of the Lewis, and was run ashore. She is now being dismantled, and it is said is breaking up.
Source: Shipping Intelligence, LL, No. 20,499, London, Thursday January 8 1880.

NMRS, MS/829/69 (no. 2983).

(Classified as wooden barque, in ballast: date of loss cited as 31 December 1879). This vessel stranded on Hen and Chicken Rock, Lewis. Capt. Whiteside.
I G Whittaker 1998.

Neither Bosta Bay nor Hen and Chicken Rock is noted on the 1997 edition of the OS 1:50,000 map. The latter name presumably refers to the prominent isolated rock of A' Chreac.
Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 17 May 2004.

REPORT DATE: 18/05/2004