The Thesis (Wreck)

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They launched the iron steamer Thesis down the slipway of McIlwaine, Lewis in Belfast into a bitter, misty January morning in 1887. She behaved well from the moment her keel hit the water.

Certainly Captain Wallace and his 11-man crew had no complaints about her performance during the two years and nine months they were together, carrying all sorts of cargo around Britain and to the Continent.

The 378 ton Thesis was 167ft long with a beam of 25ft, and drew nearly 18ft. In early October, 1889, she left Middlesbrough carrying a cargo of pig-iron for her home port of Belfast. She went north around the tip of Scotland and, to avoid the stormy waters of the Tiree Passage, took the often calmer short cut through the Sound of Mull.

In thick fog, just after midnight on 16 October, 1889, the Thesis ran onto a reef just off the eastern shore of the southern end of the Sound. There was no doubt that she was badly damaged and Captain Wallace ordered everyone into the boats. It was a wise move. It was not long before his ship slid off the reef and sank in deep water.

In more recent days she has been well salvaged by Richard Grieve of the Mull Diving Centre at Salen on the Isle of Mull. The blasting-off of the plates of the hull during that salvage has let in more light and added to the interest of dives on this