Today's trip down memory lane gives an insight into the story behind a River Clyde landmark - the wreck of the MV Captayannis, better known as The Sugar Boat.

Here's how we told the story in the Reporter on Wednesday, February 4, 2004 on the 30th anniversary of her sinking and the tale of the canoeist who ventured out to spend the night.

THIRTY years ago the Clyde coast gained a new landmark and a lasting warning of the treacherous force of the weather and the sea.

Captayannis, a 4,576 ton Greek cargo ship loaded with sugar, sank in a violent storm on Monday, January 28, 1974 just off Ardmore Point, near Cardross.

Her dark hull can be seen all along the coast from the outskirts of Dumbarton to Rosneath Point; she lies impaled on a sandbank like an iron island between the two shores.

She lies on her port side, starboard sticking three or four metres out of the water, which at that point is about nine metres deep.

Fortunately there was no loss of life as she became a victim of the sea.

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Captayannis’ fate began on the stormy winter night of Sunday, January 27 as she sat anchored outside Greenock, waiting to offload her cargo.

She was heading for the James Watt Dock from Laurenco Marques in Portuguese East Africa.

Gales of 60mph lashed the coast that night and in the early morning darkness Captayannis dragged her anchor and drifted for three quarters of a mile.

Captain Theodarkis Ionnis tried to power her towards the Gareloch for shelter.

But she collided with the huge anchor chain of a twenty-three thousand ton BP Tanker, British Light, which ripped a hole in her port side below the waterline causing water to gush into her port-side tank.

The captain sent out a Mayday. Labrador, a tug from the Faslane naval base, was first on the scene and the ship was re-anchored between Ardmore and Rosneath Point.

But the ship’s power failed, the pumps could not cope with the large volume of water and she began to list.

The Labrador was given the task of pumping water out of the damaged tank and into the starboard side to stabilise her but the storm was too fierce to attempt it.

The Greek and African crew members were rescued by a Clyde Marine Motoring Vessel motorlaunch, the Rover, and taken to Greenock.

There was controversy that Clyde tug men had not gone to the ship’s aid.

They were in grievance with their employers, but said that regardless of the dispute the weather would have made it impossible to get lines on her.

She settled at a 90 degree angle to the water where she has remained ever since.

People living along the Clyde awoke to a new sight on the horizon and wreckage washed up on the shore.

Canoeist may be last man to spend a night aboard

A CANOEIST has described his spooky night as the Captayannis’ final passenger— after she sank.

Robin Lloyd Jones from Helensburgh has his own sea kayak, and just after the fateful sinking 30 years ago he paddled out to get a closer look— and decided to stay the night.

He took a sleeping bag, flask and sandwiches and settled down on what would have been the wall of the steering house.

He said: “The door was like a letter box on one of the walls and the porthole was above me like a skylight.

“It was quite an experience really. Certainly very eerie and ghostly with all the sounds.

“As the tide went up and down, the air pressure would change making make weird noises.

“I think what struck me most is the smell. It has been inhabited by sea birds from the day it was grounded there.”

The Clyde Street man, who can see the wreck from his house, actually walked along the starboard side, now lying flat just above the water.

He said: “It’s like the size of a couple of tennis courts.

“It’s quite surprising. It’s lying absolutely horizontal. The mast is completely parallel to the water.

“Even 30 years ago vegetation was beginning to take hold and it had been well picked over by divers. Anything valuable had gone out of it.”

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He remembers the morning he looked out of his window to see the new shape protruding from the sea.

He said: “It was quite a stormy night. “The captain deliberately grounded it on the sandbank rather than have it sinking in deep water.

“He grounded it where it could be salvaged and the crew could be more easily rescued.”

In the summer Robin regularly rows out to the ship when he is in training for longer jaunts, such as his trip to 200 miles off the coast of Greenland a few years ago.