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SANDEFJORD DOCUMENTS, Page 2 The most interesting jpg is the FORLISRAPPORT – ’reports on wreckage’ (excerpt below, more on next pages). Heading in the margin is a synthesis report: Went aground May 19, Björngrundet, Condemned. The text is as follows in English: comments in italics
"Bark Eugenie (HNDC signal name of ship, you see the same in the ship lists) of Sandefjord, master L.M. Hansen, on a trip from Domsjö to London with "splitved" >wood in some form, possibly finely chopped or in small pieces, don’t know what for< went aground in a North by north-easterly gale and fog, at Björngrundet in the Stockholm archipelago on May 19th. Later towed to Stockholm, where it was sold. Not insured.
’Sjöförklaring’ This is called in my dictionary ’Captain’s protest’ which I do not understand at all. Sjöförklaring in my mind has always been a sort of trial, where the court decided if the master or anyone else had been neglectful, and if so, what sort of responsibility that person or persons would have to bear.
Sjöförklaring at Stockholm June 9th. The inspector of ships
from the Östenfjeldske district <eastern Norway> pronounces that the
master, having set the course in the middle of the fairway, did not take
sufficiently into account the current, which in conjunction with the fog
seems to have been the reason for the shipwreck. As an excuse the master
points to the lack of lighthouse and fog signal on ’Flotjan’, as a result
of which, and at his proposal, the case is withdrawn." FLOTJAN must
be the island or reef Flötjan at Åland Islands. Nowadays a lighthouse,
pretty famous.
Condensed translation, no comments: "Bark Eugenie (HNDC) of Sandefjord, master L.M. Hansen, on a trip from Domsjö to London with wood chips went aground in a North by north-easterly gale and fog, at Björngrundet in the Stockholm archipelago on May 19th. Later towed to Stockholm, where it was sold. Not insured. Maritime hearing at Stockholm June 9th. The inspector of ships from the Östenfjeldske district pronounces that the master, having set the course in the middle of the fairway, did not take sufficiently into account the current, which in conjunction with the fog seems to have been the reason for the shipwreck. As an excuse the master points to the lack of lighthouse and fog signal on ’Flotjan’, as a result of which, and at his proposal, the case is withdrawn."
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In 2010, further
research with the Aland Islands archives show that the Flotjan light was
not constructed in 1906 but sometime later; thus, the Captain was correct:
NO LIGHT! In addition, more precise locating data for the wreck site
was determined. Picture 4 of the Grounding Gallery was modified to
show coordinates, and a new Picture 5 was added to show coordinates of the
wreck site and the non-existent Flotjan Light.