Oriana Wreck in the Wallet

The Oriana Buoy

This Starboard Hand Mark with the legend ‘Oriana’ opposite Wallet No.4 should logically be Wallet No.1: oddly, it is un-named on charts. The buoy has been in position for some years. The photograph below shows the buoy in 2021, it is clearly a vintage piece, note the elaborate topmark. Oriana and Medusa are the only known buoys in the area with female names.

A return visit in 2023 found the buoy re-painted and bearing the legend ‘Oriana Wreck’ with a modified topmark and grab-line at the base:

Wreck at this site

The only shipwreck in the area of a vessel named Oriana was not in this location. There is a wreck charted next to the buoy, and, according to the chart, it is swept to 2.7m CD on a seabed of around 11m so could have been sizable.

This old-style buoy is of the shape and colour of pre-IALA wreck buoys. Nowadays, the modern Yellow/Blue IALA style wreck buoys are rapidly deployed by THV Alert when required¹ Wreck Marking buoys | Trinity House., this buoy is, of course, a starboard hand mark and not a wreck buoy.

The wreck is shown on the 1948 chart and, on the 1954 update is described as having masts showing. The Oriana’s masts were insubstantial and would barely be tall enough to reach from the seabed. No wreck in that position is shown on the 1945 Kriegsmarine Chart which was presumably reliable up to 1939 or so. There is a website for HMS Wildfire which shows no WW2 wreck at the site. Probably the wreck occurred between 1939 and 1948: it may be on the 1943 Harwich to Ramsgate Chart but the position is suspect.

A SONAR survey on 28 September 2023 failed to find a prominent object. The magenta rectangle is 20m by 5m, small for a wreck (Oriana was 35m by 4m). Whilst erratic the survey should have detected something if the wreck was near the indicated site: it may, of course, be some distance away if the marked position is that surveyed in the 1940s.

The Loss of the Oriana

The Royal Navy steam tug ST Oriana was towing a much-needed minesweeper from the Medway to Brightlingsea in January 1948 and at 2 p.m. was at the entrance to the Blackwater, near the Knoll buoy. According to the crew of her companion, the tug Vagrant, there was a tremendous explosion which lifted Oriana into the air and then she immediately sank. Fourteen men and a boy were lost²Accounts of sinking from newspapers..

Vagrant remained to mark the site but after a search by vessels dispatched to the scene, no survivors were found. Subsequently, divers were sent to investigate the wreck but it is unclear what, if anything, they found.

Oriana was 116 ft 0 in (35.36 m) long, with a beam of 27 feet 6 inches (8.38 m). She had a depth of 12 feet 7 inches (3.84 m) and a draught of 13 feet 6 inches (4.11 m). She was assessed at 295 GRT,³ST Oriana – Wikipedia

Mines at Large

The cause of the explosion was almost certainly a stray German mine. The Admiralty had cleared all of the British mines from our waters. It had been agreed that the mines on the Eastern coast of the North Sea would be cleared by the Kriegsmarine. However, the occupying forces had not permitted the German minesweepers to go to sea, thus leaving the mines in place. Winter storms had most probably caused this mine to drift across to the Essex coast. Lloyds of London reported that, over the previous year, eight-four vessels had been sunk by mines.

Empire Ships

The SS Empire Frieda of 265GRT was built in 1946 by Ferguson Brothers of Glasgow. Thousands of ‘Empire’ ships of all types were built or acquired to supplement the U.K.’s Merchant Fleet during and after World War Two⁴Empire ship – Wikipedia. SS Empire Frieda was transferred to the Royal Navy in 1947 and re-named ST Oriana⁵ST Oriana – Wikipedia.

Buoy in the wrong place or wrong wreck?

ST Oriana is the only ship of that name known to have sunk in the vicinity of the Wallet. The Knoll buoy, near where the Oriana exploded, is about 2M northwest of the Swin Spitway and is along the route from the Medway to Brightlingsea.

The location of the Oriana buoy in the Wallet is not where Oriana sank, but about 9M to the northeast of the explosion site. So where is the wreck of Oriana? There are three wrecks in the Knoll area although, given the size of the explosion, there may have been little left.

There is a wreck marked by the Oriana buoy, which according to differences in charts sank sometime in the 1940s, so which wreck is that?

• 1
  Wreck Marking buoys | Trinity House.
• 2
  Accounts of sinking from newspapers.
• 3
  ST Oriana – Wikipedia
• 4
  Empire ship – Wikipedia
• 5
  ST Oriana – Wikipedia