Kettleness Scar

Low tide at Kettleness exposing the Pliensbachian mudstone scar below the headland. Scar comes from the Old Norse sker for a reef. The Scots skerry and Gaelic sgeir derive from the same root. The scene might look benign but the below the waters lie a graveyard of ships. The Ceres, The Curlew, The Golden Sceptre, The Onslow, The Athos and The Star of Bethlehem have all met their fate. And perhaps many more unrecorded since the Romans established their signal station on the cliffs above.

One particular ship was the Vanland, a 1,285-ton Swedish steamship bound for London from Gothenburg carrying a cargo paper and wood. On the 23 July 1917, she was being stalked by a German U-Boat. Trying to evade his attentions she hit the scar at Kettleness. Within minutes she was torpedoed with the ensuing explosion killing 6 of her crew. The remaining crew of the Vanland were rescued at Runswick Bay, watched by the German U-Boat which had surfaced. The ship burned for a full week before succumbing to the waves of the North Sea.