Maritime record MHG46685 - St Clair: Salen Pier, Loch Sunart

NMRS Report: (11/12/2003)
NM66SE 8002 c. 689 642
N56 42.7 W5 46.6

NLO: Salen Bay [name: NM 690 639]
Loch Sunart [name centred NM 75 60].

25 September 1878, ST CLAIR, 2 yrs old, of Glasgow, Lloyd's 100 A1, last survey 8.77, iron steamship, 67 tons, 11 crew, Master J. McCallum, Owner A. Ross, Glasgow, departed Tyree [Tiree] Island for Glasgow, carrying general cargo and 20 passengers, 3 passengers lost, wind SW9, stranded, partial loss, Salen Slip, Loch Sunart, Argyllshire.
Source: PP Abstracts Returns of Wrecks and Casualties on Coasts of the UK 1878 - 79 (1880 [C.2519] LXVI.47).

Tobermory, 25th Sept., 3.48 p.m., the steamer ST CLAIR, McCallum master, with a deck cargo of sheep and cattle, capsized at Salen pier, Loch Sunart: woman and child drowned, boy missing. When weather moderates Lloyd's agent will visit wreck
Source: Shipping Intelligence, LL, No. 20,099, London, Thursday September 26 1878.

Glasgow, 4th Oct., the ST CLAIR (s), which capsized in Loch Sunart, arrived at Greenock yesterday and proceeded to Glasgow. [record received incomplete].

NMRS, MS/829/69 (no. 2928).

This event is not cited by I G Whittaker (1998), presumably as the vessel was successfully refloated. The 1997 edition of the OS 1:50,000 map notes a jetty (of uncertan age) at NM 689 642, part-way down Salen Bay. No remains need be expected to survive at the location of stranding.
Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 11 December 2003.