In rough seas and a strong south-easterly wind on the evening of 12 October 1952, the Hull registered trawler St Ronan, (H.86) owned by the Firth Steam Trawler Co. of Hull, ran aground on the rocks off St John's Point near John O' Groats while bound for Greenland.  The Thurso lifeboat H.C.J. was launched at 8.25pm, but on reaching the casualty, found that a Stroma motor-boat had already rescued nineteen of the crew landing them in Mey, leaving just the Skipper and the Wireless Operator aboard the stranded vessel.  The lifeboat went alongside and rescued the Wireless Operator but the Skipper still refused to leave. The lifeboat therefore stood-by throughout the night, eventually rescuing the Skipper when it became obvious that the trawler could not be saved, the lifeboat landing the two men at Scrabster at 10.30am. 

The tugs Enforcer and Salveda along with the frigate Widemouth Bay stood by while the Whirlpool, a drifter belonging to Metal Industries Ltd., took empty herring barrels from Scrabster to be placed in the vessel's fish hold by which means it was hoped to refloat the trawler, but all efforts were in vain because she slid off the reef to become a total loss on the 25th October.

Built at Beverley in 1948 having Official No. 182626, the St. Ronan was oil fired and was 170.2 feet long and 29.2 feet wide, (52m by 9m).  She was formerly known as the Princess Elizabeth and was 567.9 gross registered tons.

A copy of the Board of Trade Wreck Report can be found here.