PHOTO: NAOMI WATSON
SCUBAHUB
Pottery in the stern section( inset: a recovered teapot lid)
Graeme recovered a few items by hand
Graeme Bruce
Pottery treasures of the Eagle
A GROUP OF TECHNICAL DIVERS HAS reported the discovery of a shipwreck carrying a cargo of largely intact 19th Century Scottish pottery. The wreck, identified as the Eagle, lies at a depth of 53 metres off the Isle of Arran.
The team had been planning to dive the submarine HMS Sealion in July last year; however, faced with a foreboding weather forecast they had to find an alternative. Step forward veteran technical diver Graeme Bruce, a former BSAC Expeditions Officer and prominent member of Tyneside BSAC, now based in Oban.
He had joined the group at the last minute, at the invitation of trip organiser Nathan Messer, accompanied by Adam Bolton, John Eden, Mike Robinson and Martin Sharpe. They were on the RIB Starfish Enterprise, run by Wreckspeditions and skippered by Jason Coles.
“ I consulted my own record of wrecks on my Navionics software, and saw there were a few promising marks in the vicinity,” Graeme told SCUBA.“ Prior to the dive we weren’ t even certain it was a wreck, but as soon as we got down there you could see bits of brass and portholes everywhere. The guys had never been on an undived wreck before, and you could hear these whoops of delight as they made their way around the site, discovering all these artefacts. It was just littered with pottery.”
The wreck’ s depth and location means it isn’ t likely to be visited by many groups, but using a rebreather, Graeme ran bottom times of 45 minutes with another 45 minutes of decompression stops.
Graeme later identified the wreck as the Eagle, built in 1857. She was carrying 56 passengers, 20 crew and 200 sheep on her final voyage in 1859, when she collided with the Pladda, under tow with a cargo of wood. The Eagle sank with the death of 11 people.
“ The Eagle was an iron vessel used for passengers and general cargo,” Graeme said.“ Most iron shipwrecks corrode very quickly, much quicker than steel... that’ s bad news if you want an intact shipwreck, but good news if you want to see the cargo. I would say that the piles of pottery in the hold area are 1.5 metres deep. In this case, I think the hold structure collapsed outwardly, which thankfully meant the pottery wasn’ t all crushed.”
Graeme subsequently returned to Arran and spent three days cataloguing the wreck, ensuring his sketches were accurate. He then went around the wreck to carefully select a few examples to bring to the surface by hand over the course of three dives. He has been
working closely with the Receiver of Wreck, and wants the Eagle to be officially protected by Historic Scotland.
“ We got these few pieces home, cleaned them up and found that they were made by Glasgow-based Bells Pottery, which specialised in spongeware, pottery decorated by spattering or sponging on colour. I knew absolutely nothing about pottery before this, but the Internet can be a wonderful thing, and I found out that Glasgow had a big pottery industry in the 19th Century.” Speaking to the BBC, Ruth Impey of the Scottish Pottery Museum said that the divers had made an important find.“ Bells Pottery, which all these pieces are, was probably the largest and best known of Glasgow’ s potteries,” she said.“ The reason the pieces are in such good condition is that they were buried in mud at the bottom of the sea. Graeme had to dive down to 53m to retrieve the items, so it’ s quite an extraordinary feat in itself. We don’ t know enough about the history of where the cargo was going yet, but we’ re doing more research.”
Graeme and Ruth Impey are now looking at possible ways to display these and further finds, including a possibility of housing them in a new museum.
The dive team( l-r) Adam Bolton, trip organiser Nathan Messer, Martin Sharpe, John Eden and Mike Robinson( inset: RIB Starfish Enterprise)
Spongeware pottery in the cargo hold
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