'Euphoria' as lost 166-year-old shipwreck off Scottish island reveals itself

Divers have made their way onto the SS Eagle for the first time more than 160 years after it sank in Scottish waters.

It was the Scottish shipwreck that nobody could find - until now.

For decades, divers were unable to locate the remains of the SS Eagle, a steamer that sank off the coast of the Isle of Arran in November 1859. The steamer collided with another vessel, killing 11 men, women and children, as it made the journey between Greenock and Derry with 56 passengers on board.

On board the Clyde-built vessel were those crossing the water for business or for new beginnings.

Thomas Sappin, from 40 High Main Street, Gorbals, survived the accident. But his wife and three children - Thomas, four, Margaret, three, and James, one, all perished as the deck turned into “one sheet of flame and smoke” and disappeared from view within 15 minutes of the impact.

The crockery from the SS Eagle on the seabed where it fell 166 years ago. PIC: Naomi Watson. | Naomi Watson

The family had been on their way to Northern Ireland to start a new life.

Half a mile from the coast of Lamlash Bay on Arran, the last resting places of the SS Eagle has been found by diver Graeme Bruce, of Easdale Island, and a team of recreational divers who had never explored an undived shipwreck site before.

Leading them was Jason Coles of Wreckspeditions, a Dunoon-based charter service for divers on the Clyde. The journey was made only after poor weather had stalled a planned dive to a nearby submarine.

Mr Coles said there had been “euphoria” among the divers when they struck upon the Eagle, the ship’s bell still in place.

The wreck of SS Eagle was found around a mile offshore from Lamlash Bay on the east coast of the Isle of Arran. PIC: CC/Mike Peel. | CC/Mike Peel

Crucially, among the seabed lay the ship’s Glasgow-made crockery, some of it still piled high in metre-tall stacks. Once used by passengers on the Eagle, today it serves as a reminder of the very human stories that were cut short in the water that tragic night. Glass bottles and a toilet were also found.

A piece of 'spongeware' made by Bell's Pottery found on the seabed and cleaned up after being retrieved from the wreck of the SS Eagle. PIC: Naomi Watson. | Naomi Watson

Mr Coles said: “This was a really striking dive. A lot of these shipwrecks have been dived to death, they were all stripped, and a lot of those human elements have disappeared.

“Not here. You really get to engage with the story. We believe this ship has never been dived before. You would normally go looking for the ship’s bell as it helps you identify the ship - it was still there.”

Mr Coles said the group of recreational divers on board were “chuffed to bits” with the discovery. “It was like euphoria,” Mr Coles said.

A piece of Bell's Pottery retrieved from the hold of the SS Eagle. Some stacks of pottery found in the wreck measured around a metre high. PIC: Naomi Watson. | A piece of 'spongeware' made by Bell's Pottery found on the seabed and cleaned up after being retrieved from the wreck of the SS Eagle. PIC: Naomi Watson.

A simple software update on mapping software more than 16 years after the SS Eagle disappeared from view led diver Graeme Bruce, from Easdale Island, to suggest a dive after a never-been-seen before mark emerged.

Mr Bruce said: “Historic Environment Scotland have been looking for this wreck for years. Nobody has been able to find it.”

Five other wrecks have now been found in the area by Mr Bruce, a retired engineer. But it is the Eagle - and its contents - that is regarded as the most significant.

Precious cargo: Another piece of Bell's Pottery retrieved from the 1859 wreck. PIC: Naomi Watson. | Naomi Watsom

Mr Bruce said: “The time capsule of the wreck is really special. The big thing is being somewhere that nobody has been. You go on that wreck and you know you are the first person to see that.

“I have been diving for years and to me it is all about the shipwreck. I am just interested in ships and lighthouses. I didn’t think the cargo was particularly significant until my wife spotted a particular plate. She knew it was significant.”

Mr Bruce went back half a dozen times to examine the Eagle, once with photographer Naomi Watson. While there was little of the iron wreck left, it was “littered” with pottery, he added.

Some of the pieces of crockery, as it turns out, are rare surviving examples made by Bell’s Pottery in Glasgow in the 19th century - the biggest factory of its kind in Scotland at the time.

Mr Bruce said: “I carefully selected what was significant over a course of drives and took a number of pieces. The law is quite strict about this and whatever you take has to be recorded.”

After bringing the items to the water’s surface by hand cleaning up a number of pieces, Mr Bruce started to research the finds. Most of the crockery retrieved was produced by J & MP Bell & Co from around 1841.

The company was established at the corner of Stafford St and Pulteney St, close to the Forth and Clyde Canal in the north of the city. The company’s ranges included dinner and tea services that were popular on the UK and American markets.

It was the most prolific Scottish pottery of the time, with hand-painted ‘’spongeware” items on the Eagle among the company’s rarest surviving examples.

The Hunterian Art Gallery holds a number of Bell’s Pottery pieces. Pottery expert Ruth Impey, of social enterprise Make It Glasgow, which aims to connect the heritage of Scotland’s industrial ceramic production to the communities where it thrived, has also helped to unravel the past of the Eagle’s cargo.

Mr Bruce said: “Some of the pottery was stacked a metre deep. It has been exposed, not squashed by the wreck. Of course, you have got to be respectful with something like this.

“The diving community can be a little bit strange. The wrecks of the Clyde are all empty, but this one is intact. It is like the wrecks you find in Norway, Finland and Sweden. Things have been left in place.”

Historic Environment Scotland said the wreck was now being considered for legal protection to make it a criminal offence to intentionally or recklessly remove, alter or disturb marine historic assets or damage or interfere with them.

A spokeswoman said: “We are currently assessing the wreck for designation as a Historic Marine Protected Area. We have carried out an initial assessment of the wreck against the criterion of national importance, and have also commissioned marine geophysical surveys utilising multi-beam echo sounder (MBES) and Sidescan Sonar (SSS) photogrammetry of the wreck.

“Following completion of our assessment, we will provide an initial view to Marine Scotland, who advise Scottish ministers.”