Name SS Castilian Completed 1919 Length 331 | Operator Ellerman Lines Status Dangerous wreck Tonnage 2.782 million kg | |
Fate sunk on 12 February 1943 | ||
SS Castilian was carrying a cargo of munitions to Lisbon when she struck East Platters Rocks, near The Skerries, Anglesey, Wales and on 12 February 1943 sank.
In 1987 a Royal Navy clearance vessel spent several months removing unexploded ordnance from Fydlyn Bay nearby believed to have come from the wreck. In 1997 the location of the wreck on East Platters Rocks was designated under section 2 of the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973 with a 500 m exclusion zone regarding scuba diving activities because of its potentially dangerous cargo.
Other boats with the same name
There were two other Ellerman Lines ships called SS Castilian. The first, ex-Umbilo, was purchased in 1909 from Bullard, King & Co renamed Castilian, 1917 torpedoed and sunk by U-61 off Ireland. The third built 1955, 1963 renamed City of Peterborough, 1964 reverted to Castilian (1966-7 chartered to Cunard, temporarily renamed Arabia), 1971 sold to Maldives renamed Maldive Freedom. An even earlier Castilian was wrecked on Porthmadog Bar in 1868.