Archaeologists and volunteers have identified the timbers of a shipwreck found on the island of Sanday in Orkney as belonging to HMS Hind, a 24-gun Royal Navy frigate built in 1749. The wreckage was discovered in February 2024 by a schoolboy running on the beach after a storm exposed the remains.
Detailed timber dating and historical analysis revealed that the hull section, measuring 10 metres by 5 metres, originated from southern and south-western England, with the earliest wood sample felled in spring 1748. The ship had a remarkable career, serving off Jamaica in the 1750s, taking part in the sieges of Louisbourg (1758) and Quebec (1759) during the Seven Years' War, and later serving in the American Revolutionary War. After being decommissioned, it was sold and converted into a 500-tonne whaling ship renamed The Earl of Chatham.
The vessel was wrecked in a North Sea storm on 29 April 1788, but all 56 people on board survived. The identification was a collaborative effort involving Wessex Archaeology, Historic Environment Scotland, and local volunteers who pored over maritime archives and shipping registers to narrow down the vessel among at least 270 known shipwrecks on Sanday.
Ben Saunders, senior marine archaeologist at Wessex Archaeology, described the Hind as 'an amazingly long-lived and lucky ship'. The timbers are currently being preserved underwater at the Sanday heritage centre while a permanent home is discussed. Alison Turnbull of Historic Environment Scotland noted that the discovery shows communities hold the keys to their own heritage.
