HMS Fawn. Warship on rocks 1907
By Douglas Gordon
Warship on rocks 1907
(Douglas Gordon)
The following information and photos I got from Stan Mitchell of Rockfield, now living in Portmahomack.
He told me after ship went on rocks all the local fishermen were told to come and get free coal off her, talk about manna from heaven then once enough coal was taken off her she was able to refloat at high tide and come off rocks no damage to her hull and she was able to carry on her way. There is no reports in papers about this only local knowledge and a photo with some information on back of photo frame.
His Uncle of East House Rockfield took this photo and recorded on back of it the following information;
Torpedo boat/Destroyer HMS Fawn ran ashore on the rocks in dense fog morning of 24th October 1907
Photo by Dan Mitchell East House
Stan Mitchell told me his uncle Dan was trained by DJ Ross of East House Portmahomack who took the glass plate negatives as he was DJ Ross assistant when taking his glass plate negatives.
DJ Ross lived next to his shop where the Oystercatcher restaurant is now
HMS Fawn. We are not sure at what point along the coast she went aground, but it was near Ballone Castle. Christine Mitchell said, my Dad William Mitchell told us the story. His brother, my uncle Tommy Mitchell (Stanley's father), went for a walk along the Rockfield shore as he often did, on a very foggy morning and found a Royal Navy ship on the rocks! The crew were still on board wondering how they could get themselves out of the situation. After chatting with them Tommy ran home to fetch his brother Dan, a keen photographer. Dan collected his equipment, quite bulky in those days, walked to the ship and took his photos, talked to the crew and returned home. He often used the family living-room as a darkroom for developing his photos, so he produced several copies of his photo of the stranded ship as he could. He returned to the ship and members of the crew offered him money for copies of the photo. He was delighted as he was quite a hard-up young man. The next day the ship managed to free itself from the rocks with the help of the tide and thankfully no crew member was injured.
The following information you can find on this ship
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Fawn_%281897%29
HMS Fawn was a Palmer three funnel, 30 knot destroyer ordered by the Royal Navy under the 1896 – 1897 Naval Estimates. She was the fourth ship to carry this name.
Luckily she was only going slowly ahead in thick Fog, no radar or GPS in those days to tell you where you were. Just a man or men on the bow of ship trying to see what was ahead of them in thick Fog they would have been better to drop anchor and wait for fog to clear.
HMS Fawn survived the First World War and was broken up for scrap in 1919.