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The Captayannis was a
On the evening of 27 January 1974, a severe storm caused the ''Captayannis'' to drag her anchor while she was waiting at the
The wreck has been looted extensively leaving just steel hull and superstructure. Some of the wooden decking remains in remarkably good condition after more than 50 years in the sea. The hull remains sound, though her thinner deck plates are starting to rust through with holes opening up in places. Through time ''Captayannis'' has become 'home' to marine life and birds. She has never been removed as confusion surrounds the identity of her owners and insurers – no one accepts responsibility for her removal. She is known to many locals simply as the "sugar boat".
Boat Tours from Greenock are available.
The wreck is a familiar sight near the Tail of the Bank and can be seen on satellite images. The wreck is not to be confused with that of the French warship ''Maillé Brézé'' which sank nearby in 1940, but was later removed and cut up in Port Glasgow in 1956.
In June 2025 it was reported by the BBC that recent harsh weather over the winter, including
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
sugar-carrying vessel that sank in the Firth of Clyde
The Firth of Clyde, is the estuary of the River Clyde, on the west coast of Scotland. The Firth has some of the deepest coastal waters of the British Isles. The Firth is sheltered from the Atlantic Ocean by the Kintyre, Kintyre Peninsula. The ...
, Scotland
Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
in 1974. Known as the ''Sugar Boat'' locally.
Sinking
On the evening of 27 January 1974, a severe storm caused the ''Captayannis'' to drag her anchor while she was waiting at the Tail of the Bank
The Tail of the Bank is the name given to the anchorage in the upper Firth of Clyde immediately North of Greenock, between Inverclyde and Argyll and Bute. This area of the Firth gets its name from the deep water immediately to the west of th ...
to deliver sugar to the James Watt Dock in Greenock
Greenock (; ; , ) is a town in Inverclyde, Scotland, located in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. The town is the administrative centre of Inverclyde Council. It is a former burgh within the historic county of Renfrewshire, and forms ...
. Her captain ordered the engines to be started with the intention of running for the more sheltered waters of the Gareloch
The Gare Loch or Gareloch () is an open sea loch in Argyll and Bute in the west of Scotland, and it bears a similar name to the village of Gairloch in the north west Highlands.
The loch is well used for recreational boating, water sports an ...
but before she could be brought to power she drifted onto the taut anchor chains of the BP tanker ''British Light''. The tanker suffered no damage but her anchor chains holed the sugar boat below the waterline, allowing water to pour in.
''Captayanniss Captain Theodorakis Ionnis, realizing that water was flowing in so fast that she was in imminent danger of sinking, opted to beach her in the shallow waters over the sandbank and steered to the desired spot where she stuck fast. The pilot boats, the tug ''Labrador'' and Clyde Marine Motoring's 20 metre passenger vessel ''Rover'' came to assist. The vessel heeled over so far that it was possible for the crew to jump onto the deck of the ''Rover''. 25 of the crew were taken ashore aboard the ''Rover'', but the Captain and four crewmen waited on the ''Labrador'', standing off the stricken vessel. The ship finally succumbed the next morning, rolling onto her side. She has lain there ever since.
Aftermath
The wreck has been looted extensively leaving just steel hull and superstructure. Some of the wooden decking remains in remarkably good condition after more than 50 years in the sea. The hull remains sound, though her thinner deck plates are starting to rust through with holes opening up in places. Through time ''Captayannis'' has become 'home' to marine life and birds. She has never been removed as confusion surrounds the identity of her owners and insurers – no one accepts responsibility for her removal. She is known to many locals simply as the "sugar boat".
Boat Tours from Greenock are available.
The wreck is a familiar sight near the Tail of the Bank and can be seen on satellite images. The wreck is not to be confused with that of the French warship ''Maillé Brézé'' which sank nearby in 1940, but was later removed and cut up in Port Glasgow in 1956.
In June 2025 it was reported by the BBC that recent harsh weather over the winter, including Storm Éowyn
Storm Éowyn ( ) was a powerful and record-breaking extratropical cyclone which hit Republic of Ireland, Ireland, the Isle of Man and the United Kingdom on 24 January 2025 and hit Norway on the night of 24 January into 25 January 2025. The twent ...
, had accelerated the vessel's decline.
Wreck
* Area: Sand bank between Greenock and Helensburgh * Location: Firth of Clyde Scotland UK * Position: * Max. Depth: 9.00 * Year Sank: 1974 * How Sank: Hit anchor chain of another ship or hit the sandbank during a storm. * Condition: Substantially intactNotes
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Captayannis Shipwrecks in rivers 1946 ships Shipwrecks in the Firth of Clyde 1974 in Scotland Ships built in Denmark Merchant ships of Greece Ships sunk in collisions Sugar industry of the United Kingdom