Not Set

A gentleman’s steam yacht that was the first ship in the UK to be scuttled as a training site for divers and as an artificial reef.

Type

Seam yacht

History

In 1928, shipbuilders Cochrane and Sons of Selby in Yorkshire received a contract to build a 150ft long, 24ft beam steam trawler of 690 tons displacement as yard number 1020.  The screw-propelled vessel was powered by a triple-expansion steam engine and was capable of a speed of ten knots.  Unfortunately, the Glasgow firm that had ordered the ship went bankrupt before she was completed.  Fortunately for Cochrane and Sons, the young millionaire Colby Cubbin purchased the hull on the stocks where she lay.

Robert Alfred Colby Cubbin was born in Liverpool in 1902 into a wealthy family that owned a significant amount of property in Liverpool.  The parents must have doted on their only son, as the steam trawler, and soon to be the steam yacht Glen Strathallan, was given to Cubbin as a 21st birthday present.  Cubbin spent £30,000 converting the Glen; she was fitted with wireless telegraphy, five state rooms, a dining saloon that could seat 12 people, a large drawing room with an open fireplace, a reading and smoking room, and storage space for a motor car under the forecastle that could be lifted on board by a derrick attached to the foremast.

The Glen Strathallan drawn by The SHIPS Project, click the image for a larger version

Cubbin’s mother, Ellen, launched the Glen Strathallan on 22nd May 1928, then Cubbin took the ship from Hull to the Isle of Man using the north route via Scotland.  The Glen arrived at Douglas on 28th August 1928, blowing her huge steam whistle to announce her arrival as the first steam yacht to be registered at that port.  Cubbin never married and was somewhat of an eccentric recluse.  In the years leading up to the Second World War, Cubbin would always keep the Glen Strathallan in steam, in case he had to escape from the Island if the Germans invaded.  It was reported that Cubbin lived on buns, cream cakes and spring water, which he took with him wherever he went.

Upon the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the Glen Strathallan was taken into service by the Royal Navy, which assigned her the pennant FY010 and converted her into an escort ship, enabling her to operate with the 82nd Anti-Submarine Group.  When she was no longer needed, the Glen was paid off in Liverpool with her last Navy crew leaving her in November 1945, and she was handed back to her original owner, Colby Cubbin.

Colby Cubbin died unexpectedly in 1951 after sailing on the Glen only 12 times, the last time in 1950, and just before his next planned voyage.  His mother completed the last voyage that Cubbin had planned, then left the Glen alongside in Douglas just as it was when Colby was alive; his pyjamas lay neatly folded on the pillow in his cabin, and the door was locked.  Cubbin’s mother died in May 1955, and in her will she bequeathed the Glen Strathallan to The Shaftesbury Homes and Arethusa Training Ship charity along with a donation of £70k, on the understanding that the ship should not be sold and when she was no longer serviceable, the Glen should be taken out to sea and sunk. The Glen duly sailed from the Isle of Man to Chatham that month.  The Glen Strathallan was moored alongside the training ship Arethusa in the Medway and was used as a floating classroom for many years.  By 1960, the Arethusa Training Ship charity could not afford to keep the Glen, but she was bought by the Inner London Education Authority, refitted and recommissioned in September 1961 and based at Millwall Dock.  In 1969, now 41 years old, the Glen Strathallan was drydocked at Millwall for a routine survey, but tests on the boiler revealed that it had completely failed.  The estimated cost of repairs to the boiler was too high, so the owners decided that she had reached the end of her useful life, and the ship was to be sunk at sea.

The trustees originally intended to sink the vessel in the Hurd Deep, a 100m deep stretch of water off Alderney in the English Channel, but an appeal from Alan Bax at the School for Nautical Archaeology Plymouth (SNAP) changed the plan, and the Glen was to be scuttled in Plymouth Sound.  She was towed from the Thames on 20th April 1970, arriving at Plymouth on the 27th.  After some discussion with the Plymouth Harbour Master about where the ship was to be sunk, the seacocks were opened, and she sank to the bottom. 

The Glen Strathallan was the first ship in Britain to be sunk especially for divers as an artificial reef, pre-dating the sinking of HMS Scylla in Whitsand Bay by 34 years.  Ironically, the Royal Navy guard ship overseeing the sinking of the Glen in 1970 was HMS Scylla.  Unfortunately, the chosen resting spot for the Glen Strathallan was too shallow, too exposed and too near the eastern entrance to Plymouth Sound.  Local fishermen were angry about where the ship had been scuttled because it was a hazard to navigation, and the harbour master declared the wreck should be removed.  After a year of debating who would pay for a navigation buoy to mark the site, Fort Bovisand was required to disperse the wreckage to improve navigation. 

The name of this ship is often misspelt 'Glen Strathallen' or 'Glen Strath Allen'.

This is a condensed version of the story. For more information, please contact The SHIPS Project.

Diving the Glen Strathallan

South of the Shagstone, on the east side of Plymouth Sound.

The Glen Strathallan site plan drawn by The SHIPS Project, click the image for a larger version

What remains of the ship is the single large boiler, part of the bows lying on its starboard side, sections of hull plating amongst the sand flats, reefs and gullies of the seabed.  The site has changed a lot over the years, with the ship structure slowly collapsing, but also because the seabed itself has changed.  Photographs from the 1990s show the site covered in kelp and deep sand with very little structure visible, but today both the kelp and the sand have gone, revealing a large area of iron wreckage.  The boiler is the easiest to find as it stands proud of the seabed, and to the west lies the remains of the engine bed, the engine having been removed before she sank.  To the south can be found the stern with wooden decking, mooring bitts and the steering quadrant that was fitted to the top of the rudder.  Heading north, more structure is visible along the port side of the ship, past the boilers and over an area of bottom plating.  The anchor windlass can be seen lying upside down on the sand.  North again is a large structure that was the bow, lying on its starboard side with the sharp stem still clearly visible.  Going south along the starboard side, you can see an area of decking turned sideways with a round hole through it for a ventilator; the wooden decking is still visible.

Nearby wrecks include the steamship Nepaul , the Constance , Yvonne , Vectis

Last updated 08 January 2026

Position 50° 18.957 N, 004° 07.659 W
Depth: 12 to 18m

Show the site on OpenSeaMap