Maritime record 14076 - ELGIN: SOUND OF ERISKAY, SEA OF THE HEBRIDES

NF71SE 8007 c. 79 13
N57 6 W7 18

Possibly on map sheets NF70NE, NF80NW or NF80SW.

NLO: Caolas Eirosgaigh [name centred NF 799 133].

10 June 1876, ELGIN, 11 yrs old, of Leith, wooden brigantine, 310 tons, 10 crew, Master J. Thoms, Owner J. Grant and Son, Leith, departed Liverpool for The Tyne, carrying salt, wind S6, stranded Eriskay Sound, Western Hebrides.
Source: PP Abstracts Returns of Wrecks and Casualties on Coasts of the UK 1875 - 76 (1876 [C.1632] LXVII.191).

ELGIN, Official No. 49,107, built Pictou, N.S., 1865, stranded attributed to error of judgement on the part of the Master in estimating his distance from Barra Head. Inquiry held at Leith.
Table 46: Statement of Official Inquiries in the United Kingdom into the Causes of Wrecks, Casualties, and Collisions, ordered by the Board of Trade during the Year 1875-6.
Source: PP Abstracts Returns of Wrecks and Casualties on Coasts of the UK 1875 - 76 (1876 [C.1632] LXVII.191).

ELGIN, of Leith, Liverpool to Lynn, stranded, 8th June, NW side of Lochindahl [Lochindaal].
Source: Shipping Intelligence, LL, No. 19,390, London, Friday June 16 1876.

Shields, 16th June, the owners of the ELGIN (brgtne.), from Liverpool to Newcastle, with salt, have received a telegram stating that she had gone ashore on Eriscay [Eriskay], South Uist.
Source: Shipping Intelligence, LL, No. 19,391, London, Saturday June 17 1876.

Leith, 18th June, the ELGIN (brig), of Leith, Toms, from Liverpool to Newcastle, with salt, struck on a rock off Eriskay island (South Uist), on the night of the 10th inst., during a dense fog, and remained fast. The crew made for Eriskay, and landed: her back is broken, and she will be a wreck. The master and mate remained on the island to save the sails, etc. The cargo is totally lost.
Source: Shipping Intelligence, LL, No. 19,393, London, Tuesday June 20 1876.

NMRS, MS/829/69 (no. 2630).

(Classified as wooden brigantine, with cargo of salt: date of loss cited as June 1876). This vessel was wrecked on Rain Rock, 2 cables SW of Eriskay. Capt. Jones.
I G Whittaker 1998.

The location of this loss is uncertain. Whittaker cites no authority for his stated location. Rain Rock is not noted as such on the 1997 edition of the OS 1:50,000 map, but is probably to be equated with Na Stacan Dubha [name: NF 786 073] or one of the adjacent stacks. This equation places the loss at the opposite end of the island from the Sound of Eriskay.
Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 26 April 2004.
I G Whittaker 1998.

REPORT DATE: 26/04/2004