The wreck of the BOLTON HALL lies in 92m of water and is orientated 195 (bow)/015 (stern). The wreck is 100m long, lies on its starboard side, and is in the process of collapsing (McCartney, 2022: 173)

The wreck was originally identified by the UKHO as the PRINS FREDERIK HENDRIK (NPRN 518396). Research by Dr Innes McCartney (2022: 173) for the Echoes from the Deep project, following a detailed survey by Bangor University in May 2019, identified the wreck as being dimensionally, positionally, and archivally consistent with the loss of the BOLTONHALL. The record has been updated to reflect that new research.

Event and Historical Information:
The BOLTONHALL was a steamship built in 1900 by Irvine's Ship Building and Dry Docks Company, West Hartlepool. Technical and configuration specifications are given as 3595ton; 341.2ft length x 48.2ft breadth x 25ft depth; triple expansion engines, 308nhp, screw propulsion; official number 112418. Various newspaper accounts note the ship arriving in dock at Sunderland. The master and crew had gone to the rescue of a French steamer in April 1916 in the Bay of Biscay. The French steamer ST JEAN was carrying a cargo of steel bars, explosives, and picric acid which was valued at £1,250,000. The master received presentations from the French authorities and, a year later, the Admiralty made salvage awards to the owner of the BOLTONHALL of £16,000, the master £1,200, and the crew £2,800, making total of £20,000. The ruling mentioned that the French steamer may have fallen prey to storms and enemy submarines and that both ships were in danger of the latter.

On 20 August 1918, the ship was still owned by the West Hartlepool Steam Navigation Company. It was torpedoed by UB-92 and sank 34 miles southwest by west, by 1/4 west from Bardsey, or 29 miles north of the Bishops. The U-boat was commanded by Oberleutnant zur See Johannes Paul Muller. Five crewmen were killed and are commemorated on the Tower Hill memorial to the Mercantile Marine in London: Albert Berkley, age 19, Fourth Engineer Officer; Alexander Davidson, age 57, Second Engineer; John Edwards, age 29, Fireman and Trimmer; Andrew Winter, age 26, Fireman and Trimmer; William Yong, age 16, Steward's Boy.

Sources include:

Appropriation Books, Official Numbers 112401 - 112450 (112418)

Birmingham Daily Post, 3 November 1917

Boltonhall, uboat.net

Hocking, C, 1994, Dictionary of Disasters at Sea in the Age of Steam, p.93

Illustrated Police News, 8 November 1917

HMSO, 1988, British Vessels Lost at Sea 1914-18 and 1939-45, p.95

Lloyd's Register Casualty Returns, 1 July - 30 September 1918, p.8 (i)

McCartney, I., 2022. Echoes from the Deep. Leiden: Sidestone Press. https://www.sidestone.com/books/echoes-from-the-deep

Mercantile Navy List 1910, p.61

Mercantile Navy List, 1915, p.68

SS Boltonhall (Possibly), Wreck Site EU

Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette, 17 July 1914

UB 92, uboat.net

U-Boat Project: Commemorating the War at Sea

UKHO ID 9920: Contains public sector information, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0, from UK Hydrographic Office.

J. Whitewright, RCAHMW, November 2023.

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.

Site Record

Boltonhall (UKHO 9920)