The Fram was a 2491grt Swedish steamer built Middlesborough 1897. In January 1941 she was en route from Stockholm to Hartlepool in ballast but had to anchor off Rosehearty to weather-out a severe south-easterly storm. In the early hours of the 1st of February she was torpedoed by the German U-boat U-13. The torpedo struck amidships cutting the vessel in two, on the fore part, eleven crew attempted to launch a life raft but the section sank within minutes - of these eleven, only four eventually survived and were picked up from their raft fourteen hours later by the Aberdeen trawler Viking Deep.

On the stern section which remained afloat, drifting north-west for twenty-five minutes, ten crewmembers launched a life raft but were not picked up for a further thirty-six hours in freezing conditions. They were finally spotted by a patrolling aircraft and rescued by an Admiralty trawler which took them to Kirkwall. In total, eight members of the Fram’s crew died that day.

There are now two sections of the Fram which can be dived: The bow section which sank at anchor 2 miles west of Rosehearty at 57° 42.097’N 02° 10.584’W and the stern section which drifted off and sank 3½ miles WNW of Rosehearty at 57° 42.759’N 02° 13.369’W.

The stern section lies on clean sand in a depth of 49 mts and is best dived at LW slack (LW at Rosehearty) as there are strong currents when the tide is running. Obvious precautions should be taken due to the depth, currents and offshore location of the wreck - this is a dive only for experienced divers with appropriate training and equipment. Delayed SMB's are essential for decompression stops as the current can be strong enough to drag shot-line marker buoys under. The stern sits almost upright and rises 13 mts off the seabed at its highest point, the steel propeller is still in place. Moving forward, the wreck has collapsed down onto the seabed and is a mass of plates and beams, although much is recognisable - including a spare propeller, hatches, winches and engine - the ship’s safe still lies among the wreckage!

The bow section was finally discovered only as recently as 1995 by Peterhead Sub-Aqua Club - it can be found by making a search with a high definition echo sounder on the GPS co-ordinates given above, this will show a 2 mtr high hard trace for most of the wreckage and a faint 6mtr high peak at the bows - this is the best place to shot the wreck. (In the summer months you may be lucky enough to find the wreck has been buoyed by some of the local clubs). The wreck lies south to north on flat sand and shingle, bows at the south with the anchor chains trailing off to the south-east, only the 6m high forecastle is intact, pointing to the surface and the rest has collapsed - some wreckage including a donkey boiler and the remains of the bridge lie on the seabed on the port side - possibly where the force of the explosion blew them off. The ship’s boiler lies 100 mts to the south-east of the main wreckage - obviously where it dropped from the stern section as it was drifting off.

Visibility on the site is usually good, and can be up to 20 metres - but usually 5 to 10 metres. Maximum depth is 39mts at HW and 35mts at LW, best slack is at LW Rosehearty although it can be dived at all states of the tide with little difficulty. There is plenty of sea-life on the wreck, including lots of lobsters!, and there are plenty of non-ferrous items - the telegraph was found in 1995.

The wreck lies only ½ mile from Rosehearty bombing range which is open from 9am to 4pm on weekdays - the RAF doesn't take kindly to dive-boats near the range, and in 1995 members of Peterhead BSAC were bombed by four RAF Tornado’s which mistook the orange dive-boat for the target float! - better to dive this site at the weekend.

Any information or stories about shipwrecks in the Rosehearty area would be greatly appreciated - please contact the source of these pages, Roger Mathison.