Steam paddle tug · lost 1896 · Firth of Clyde, United Kingdom
Champion
A Board of Trade enquiry into the loss of the Champion found that the paddle steamer Caledonia had run north through dense fog at an excessive and improper speed, and it suspended her master, Captain Bell, for three months. The Champion, an iron steam paddle tug built at South Shields as the Flying Javelin and later owned in Greenock, had been carrying papers and mail to the piers below Dunoon.
Captain Quintin Carsell was feeling his way south at a few knots, whistle sounding, when the Caledonia came out of the murk and drove into the tug's port sponson. The two vessels held together long enough for the tug's crew to cross over, and Carsell went back for the mail before she went down within minutes.
She lies upright south of the Gantock Rocks, her stern intact and her starboard paddlewheel standing tall, while the hull forward of the engine room is broken.
- Type
- Steam paddle tug
- Lost
- 1896Collision
- Depth
- 34 m
- Location
- Firth of Clyde, United KingdomFirth of Clyde
Deeper than 108 of the 185 wrecks on the map with a recorded depth.
History and LossLost 1896 · Collision · Firth of Clyde, United Kingdom.
She left Greenock at 6:20am on 12 December 1896 with a crew of six, calling at Gourock, Kirn and Dunoon as the fog thickened. Leaving Dunoon Pier at 7:45am for Innellan, she met the Caledonia steaming north at her usual fifteen knots.
Carsell turned to starboard and ordered engines full astern, but the steamer cut six or seven feet into her hull through to the engine room bulkhead, and she sank five minutes after the collision.
Lost 1896, collision.
Condition of the WreckBroken.
Intactness
She sits upright at around 36 metres on mud that slopes away towards her stern, her bow pointing inshore. The wooden bridge platform and the funnel are gone, though the base of the stack remains; the stern is otherwise intact. Her condition has deteriorated markedly since her discovery in the late 1980s.
Notable Features
- Stern section
Sea-Surface Temperature by Month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Surface temp | 8.2° | 7.2° | 7° | 8.1° | 10° | 12° | 13.9° | 14.6° | 13.8° | 12.4° | 11.2° | 9.6° |
Additional Details9 further fields held for this wreck and not shown above.
- Propulsion
- Steam
- Loss date
- 1896
- Latitude
- 55.9321° N
- Longitude
- 4.9309° W
- Water body
- Firth of Clyde
- War grave
- No
- Protected
- No
- Permit required
- No
- Condition
- Broken
Sources and VerificationEvery fact on this page traces to a published source.
- Historic Environment Scotland (Canmore, NRHE)inspire.hes.scot · Official record5 facts
- UK Hydrographic Officedatahub.admiralty.co.uk · Official record3 facts
- NOAA / NASA JPL MUR SST v4.1coastwatch.pfeg.noaa.gov · Institution or archive1 fact
- Scottish Shipwrecksscottishshipwrecks.com · Secondary source9 facts
- Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Historic Environment Scotland.
- Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. © Crown copyright and database right.
- JPL MUR MEaSUREs Project. GHRSST Level 4 MUR Global Foundation Sea Surface Temperature Analysis (v4.1). PO.DAAC. https://doi.org/10.5067/GHGMR-4FJ04
A further 5 fields were derived from the wreck’s recorded position rather than taken from a source.
Licences and credits for the open data used on this site are on the Attribution page.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Champion?
Champion is the wreck of a steam paddle tug, off Firth of Clyde, United Kingdom, at 34 metres. Champion sank after a collision in 1896.
How deep is the Champion?
Champion lies at approximately 34 metres, Firth of Clyde.
How did the Champion sink?
Champion sank after a collision on 1896, off Firth of Clyde, United Kingdom.