The Clan Malcolm (1935)

The wreck of the SS Clan Malcolm off Lizard Point in Cornwall is of particular interest to me because my grandfather Captain Lawrance Wilfrid Gibbins went on board her when he was a junior officer with the Clan Line in the 1920s. Launched in November 1917 by Craig, Taylor and Co. Ltd at Stockton-on-Tees, she had a triple-expansion steam engine and was registered at 5,994 gross tons, and in common with all Clan Line ships she was crewed by British officers and Lascar seamen. After war service from April 1917 to March 1919 she returned to commercial use, sailing on the standard Clan Line routes to and from South Africa, India and Australia. On 8 October 1921 on a voyage from Glasgow to Liverpool she collided in fog with the steamer Rowan, which sank with the loss of 20 lives. At 8 pm on 26 September 1935, while homeward bound with a cargo of maize from Port Natal and Durban via London for Glasgow, she ran aground in fog beneath the Lizard Coastguard Station, her engine room and hold quickly filling with water. The crew were taken off and landed at Cadgwith, but any hope of salvaging the ship was lost and on 4 November she broke her back - photographs taken over those days show the wreck settling until little was visible above water. In the subsequent enquiry the Master was held to blame and had his certificate suspended for a year.

I dived on the Clan Malcolm with Ben Dunstan from his boat in June 2021, on a relatively calm day when the tide was just beginning to flow. The wreck lies in 12-14 m depth in the middle of the worst tidal area off the point, where the spring ebb can run at 5 knots - so it is a place to dive with great care. As the photos (including the banner image) show, masses of wreckage including much of the engine and shaft lie under dense growths of kelp that cover much of the seabed. Unlike most of the other wrecks off Lizard Point it is one where there was no loss of life, but even so it is poignant for me thinking of my grandfather and the other crew who trod her decks a century ago.

Click on the images to enlarge.