Boy Discovers 18th Century Shipwreck on Scottish Island Beach

In February 2024, a young schoolboy made an extraordinary discovery on Sanday, one of the small Orkney Islands in northern Scotland. He found the remains of a 275-year-old shipwreck after a storm washed the vessel’s hull ashore. After the boy spotted it, the island’s residents quickly rallied to protect it, giving experts the chance to piece together its long-lost story.

Local volunteers and experts at Wessex Archaeology were able to determine not only when the ship was built, but also its exact identity. By analyzing the wood, researchers determined it dated to the mid-1700s and originated from southern England, ruling out any non-British vessels. They further narrowed the list by excluding wrecks that were too small or from the wrong region, ultimately identifying the ship as the Earl of Chatham.

Naval records revealed that the Earl of Chatham was previously known as the HMS Hind, a 24-gun Royal Navy vessel built in 1749. The Hind served off the coast of Jamaica in the 1750s and took part in the British sieges of Louisbourg and Quebec. Decades later, it was back in action during the American Revolution in the 1770s, before becoming a training ship in the Irish Sea for a decade. The Hind was eventually sold as a whaling ship and sank on April 29, 1788, during a storm on the North Sea within the Arctic Circle, under the new name of The Earl of Chatham. Miraculously, all 56 crew members survived.

The Hind was an “amazingly long-lived and lucky ship,” said Ben Saunders, senior marine archaeologist at Wessex Archaeology, who led the project with Historic Environment Scotland (HES). Even the ship’s remains were remarkably fortunate. The section of hull—about 10 by 5 meters (33 by 16 feet)—had been remarkably well preserved under the sand. The salvaged timbers are now in underwater storage at the Sanday Heritage Centre, while plans are made for their permanent home.

Discovering the ship’s story wasn’t easy, but through the combination of material analysis and a wealth of archive material, everything came to life. “We’re really lucky to have so much archive material, because of the period and because of where it wrecked in Orkney,” said Saunders. “It’s been very satisfying.”