The wreck is reported to be upright and substantially intact apart from the bows which are broken open. The keel is orientated 150/330. The wreck is within an area of sandwaves and has a least depth of 62m in a general depth of 73m. A porthole has been recovered and reported to the Receiver of Wreck.
Event and Historical Information:
The TREVEAL was a steel-hulled steamship built by J Redhead & Sons Ltd, South Shields, in 1909 (yard number 410). Technical and configuration specifications are given as 4160gt, 2641nt; 363ft 4in length x 51ft breadth x 26ft 1in depth; 1 deck, 6 bulkheads, passenger deck 31ft, boat deck 95ft, forecastle 33ft; screw propulsion powered by 2 steam boilers linked to a triple expansion engine producing 374hp. At time of loss, the vessel was owned by Hain Steam Ship Company Ltd, St Ives. The Hain family had been initially involved with the St Ives fishing industry owning a part share in a lugger. In the late 1830s, the family began to purchase schooners for the Mediterranean trade and later for West Indian sugar and Brazilian coffee trades. In 1850s, the son of the company founder Edward Hain (also called Edward), arranged finance through Bolithos bank to purchase the company's first steamer from John Redhead. Seventy-three more steamers were purchased from Redheads, all with names prefixed 'Tre'. Soon after the death of Edward Hain in 1917, the company was purchased by P & O and the British India Steam Navigation Shipping Companies at a cost of nearly £4,000,000. The TREVEAL was on passage from Algiers to Barrow-in-Furness (or Glasgow sources differ) under the command of G E Hitchins with a cargo of iron ore on 4 February 1918. It was torpedoed by U-53 (or U-35 sources differ) off the Skerries and sank with the loss of 33 crewmembers. The loss location was given as between Point Lynas and the Skerries. The wreck was located in 1996.
Sources include:
HMSO, 1988, British Vessels Lost at Sea 1914-18 and 1939-45, p.80
Larn and Larn Shipwreck Database 2002
Lloyd's Register Casualty Returns, 1 January - 31 March 1918, p.11 (i)
O' Donoghue, K and Appleyard, H, 1986, Hain of St Ives, p.48
Receiver of Wreck Droits Database 2007, RCIM6/2/5
SS Treveal, Wreck Site EU
Treveal, uboat.net
U 53, uboat.net
U-Boat Project: Commemorating the War at Sea
UK Hydrographic Office Wrecks and Obstructions Database. ? Crown Copyright and database rights. Reproduced by permission of the Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office and the UK Hydrographic Office (www.ukho.gov.uk).
Maritime Officer, RCAHMW, August 2019.
This record was enhanced in 2020 with funding from Lloyd's Register Foundation as part of the project ‘Making the Link: Lloyd's Register and the National Monuments Record of Wales’. Visit Lloyd’s Register Foundation Heritage and Education Centre for more resources.