This page is an entry in Shonas Wreck Guide.

Photo of Buccaneer with target.

Built: 1937 by Fleming & Ferguson, Paisley, Renfrewshire
Dim: 175' x 34' x 17'
Tonnage: 1190 Displacement
Engines: Triple expansion, 2 oil fired boilers, 3000 ihp
Sunk: 25th August 1946 - shelled during target practice (Not really surprising if she always towed her target as in the photo above!)
Depth: Approx 48m?

The 'bucc' was a Brigand class naval tug, capable of 15kts, sailing under the pennant number of W49 with 43 Royal Navy crew aboard. She was capable of pulling a bollard weight of 30 tons, and it was for this reason that this class of tug were employed to tow gunnery targets.

This wreck lies completely over on its port side in general depths of 47m although the starboard rail is reachable at 38m. There are portholes everywhere! - and all still well attached! The ships 'Walker Trident Electic Log' has been recovered along with a complete sextant!. The brass helm is still in the lower bridge and a mountain of crockery is piled up on the galley floor (and sink!) in the starboard side adjacent to the bridge structure.

Naval sextant from the Buccaneer.

the engine room can be accessed from the rear skylight, and the telegraph repeater is clearly visible on the front of the engine room wall - but beware. Entry in here soon causes a complete silt-out, and the exit is a complicated twisting passageway between the engines and auxilliary machinery!

The wreck is basically still intact, and being a fairly small vessel, can covered in just one dive.

Walker 'Trailing Log' from the Buccaneer.