Early on the 15th March 1934, huge waves were breaking all over Wick Bay and dashed high over the quay wall. Coastguards warned vessels not to enter Wick Harbour and several trawlers and drifters that had entered the Bay put out to sea again. That evening between 7 and 8pm the lights of a boat sailing up the Bay were seen and the coastguards, seeing the vessel was in dangerous waters, fired maroons to call out the rocket apparatus crew. The oncoming vessel, the Danish seine-net motor boat, Metha, of Frederikshavn, in attempting nonetheless to enter the harbour was a caught broadside-on by the heavy seas and tumbled over. In a few seconds she was a wreck, floating keel up. Smashed again by the sea, the Metha was reduced to matchwood. The Skipper, Karl Nielsen and his crew of three, one a boy of 15, had no chance to save themselves.
Much wreckage washed ashore along with many personal belongings of the Metha's crew. Clothing, oilskins, and sea-boots were thrown on the quays and one man picked up three English pound notes, which he handed to the Danish Consul, Councillor D.W. Bain. The ship's registration papers were picked up floating in the harbour and sent to the Custom House.
A few days after the salvaged wreck of the Metha had been sold by auction for firewood, the first body, that of the boat's Engineer, Jacob Jacobsen, was recovered on the 26th March from the sea, that of the Cook, Borge Qvist, aged 15 on 1st April, the Skipper's on 2nd April and the Mate's, Karl Halgran, on 9th April. All four bodies were sent to Denmark for burial. The Metha's Engineer, Jacob Jacobsen, was actually engaged to a Wick girl, Miss Peggy Henderson, Saltoun Street and they were due to be married in three weeks in Grimsby, where they had met about a year before. Karl Nielsen (Skipper) left a wife and two young children (a boy and a girl), Karl Halgran (Mate) was a widower and was survived by two sons.
Much sympathy was felt for the relatives of the crew of the Metha and a special memorial service was held in the Salvation Army Hall. This drew a very large crowd many people having been unable to gain admittance. All the foreign fishermen in the port were present at the service.
At the time of the wrecking of the Metha she was accompanied by another Danish fishing boat called the Syrenen (FN133). The Syrenen probably would have reached the harbour had it not been that the rudder chain jammed. Disabled in the raging sea the boat was swept backwards and forwards between the piers and the north shore, where it twice ran aground but was carried off by the backwash. Skipper Otto Muthiesen, with superb seamanship, ultimately managed to get his boat back out into deep water. When he cleared the Bay he set his course for Buckie, but the weather faired, the wind veered to the north and he returned to Wick. Before he arrived the sea had become so calm the the Lighthouse ship, the Pharos, had anchored in the Bay and sent a small boat to the harbour.
When the Syrenen was moored to the quay at 1130am a large crowd gathered. Adjutant Evans of the Salvation Army went on board the boat and offered up prayer in thanksgiving for the crew's escape, an action that was appreciated by the people. Skipper Muthiesen said he and his crew owed their existence to the oil from the wrecked Metha on that a fateful night, the spreading oil having kept the waves from breaking over them and smashing down on the deck.
The Syrenen (FN133), was built in 1930 in Gilleleje for OB Mathieson, she was sold to Skagen in 1938 and was renamed Viola (S210 (as per the photo. She was then sold to Esbjerg in 1941 becoming Viola (E166). She remained such until 1967 keeping the same number but being renamed as Svend Iver. She was eventually given to a school as a pleasure boat in 1995.
The Skipper of the Syrenen and one of the ship's crew is believed to be the Great Uncle and Grandfather respectively, of Mr Otto Mathieson, Newton Hill, Wick.
Much wreckage washed ashore along with many personal belongings of the Metha's crew. Clothing, oilskins, and sea-boots were thrown on the quays and one man picked up three English pound notes, which he handed to the Danish Consul, Councillor D.W. Bain. The ship's registration papers were picked up floating in the harbour and sent to the Custom House.
A few days after the salvaged wreck of the Metha had been sold by auction for firewood, the first body, that of the boat's Engineer, Jacob Jacobsen, was recovered on the 26th March from the sea, that of the Cook, Borge Qvist, aged 15 on 1st April, the Skipper's on 2nd April and the Mate's, Karl Halgran, on 9th April. All four bodies were sent to Denmark for burial. The Metha's Engineer, Jacob Jacobsen, was actually engaged to a Wick girl, Miss Peggy Henderson, Saltoun Street and they were due to be married in three weeks in Grimsby, where they had met about a year before. Karl Nielsen (Skipper) left a wife and two young children (a boy and a girl), Karl Halgran (Mate) was a widower and was survived by two sons.
Much sympathy was felt for the relatives of the crew of the Metha and a special memorial service was held in the Salvation Army Hall. This drew a very large crowd many people having been unable to gain admittance. All the foreign fishermen in the port were present at the service.
At the time of the wrecking of the Metha she was accompanied by another Danish fishing boat called the Syrenen (FN133). The Syrenen probably would have reached the harbour had it not been that the rudder chain jammed. Disabled in the raging sea the boat was swept backwards and forwards between the piers and the north shore, where it twice ran aground but was carried off by the backwash. Skipper Otto Muthiesen, with superb seamanship, ultimately managed to get his boat back out into deep water. When he cleared the Bay he set his course for Buckie, but the weather faired, the wind veered to the north and he returned to Wick. Before he arrived the sea had become so calm the the Lighthouse ship, the Pharos, had anchored in the Bay and sent a small boat to the harbour.
When the Syrenen was moored to the quay at 1130am a large crowd gathered. Adjutant Evans of the Salvation Army went on board the boat and offered up prayer in thanksgiving for the crew's escape, an action that was appreciated by the people. Skipper Muthiesen said he and his crew owed their existence to the oil from the wrecked Metha on that a fateful night, the spreading oil having kept the waves from breaking over them and smashing down on the deck.
The Syrenen (FN133), was built in 1930 in Gilleleje for OB Mathieson, she was sold to Skagen in 1938 and was renamed Viola (S210 (as per the photo. She was then sold to Esbjerg in 1941 becoming Viola (E166). She remained such until 1967 keeping the same number but being renamed as Svend Iver. She was eventually given to a school as a pleasure boat in 1995.
The Skipper of the Syrenen and one of the ship's crew is believed to be the Great Uncle and Grandfather respectively, of Mr Otto Mathieson, Newton Hill, Wick.