The earlier sinking
HMT Arctic Pioneer is sunk by enemy air attack at Cowes Roads, fourteen years to the day before the St. Celestin collision.
Ship history · 1956-1958 · Post-war incidents
Collision, Rescue and Boiler Fire
Between the post-war rebuild and the final 1961 loss, Arctic Viking survived two serious incidents: a collision near Bear Island that sank another Hull trawler, and a fierce boiler-room oil fire at St Andrew's Dock.
A ship with a history
Two near-disasters in three years
By the mid-1950s, the Arctic Viking had already lived several lives. Built as Arctic Pioneer, requisitioned for war, sunk by enemy action, salvaged, rebuilt, renamed and returned to Boyd Line, she was back in the harsh routine of distant-water fishing.
The years 1956 to 1958 added another layer to her reputation. On 27 May 1956, while fishing far from home near Bear Island, she collided with the Hull trawler St. Celestin. St. Celestin sank, but her crew survived. Two years later, on 20 August 1958, Arctic Viking was almost ready to sail for the White Sea when a boiler-room oil fire tore through her centre section in Hull.
The date of the collision carries an eerie coincidence. Arctic Pioneer had been sunk by enemy action at Cowes Roads on 27 May 1942. Fourteen years later, on 27 May 1956, the same hull, now sailing as Arctic Viking, was involved in the collision that sank St. Celestin. The repeated date does not prove anything by itself, but it belongs in the ship's story because it helps explain why later family and local memory could come to see her as a vessel marked by misfortune.
Neither incident sank the Arctic Viking, but both mattered. The collision showed the risks of crowded or difficult fishing waters in the far north. The fire showed how quickly a working trawler could become dangerous even while still alongside in dock.
27 May 1956
The St. Celestin collision
On 27 May 1956, Arctic Viking was involved in a collision with another British-owned Hull trawler, St. Celestin H232. The surviving ship-history notes place the incident off the east coast of Iceland, with another brief history giving the position as some 45 miles west-south-west of Bear Island.
It was the same calendar date on which Arctic Pioneer had been sunk during the war: 27 May. In 1942, the ship herself went down at Cowes Roads. In 1956, she survived, but St. Celestin did not. The coincidence is striking, especially in a story where the vessel had already been salvaged and renamed after an earlier sinking.
The collision was serious enough to sink St. Celestin, a 790-gross-ton trawler built in 1952. The later summary preserved in the vault says St. Celestin's chief engineer described Arctic Viking as having practically sliced the ship in two, with water waist-deep within seconds.
The disaster could easily have become another fatal trawler loss. Instead, Arctic Viking rescued the men from the sinking St. Celestin. The St. Celestin note records that all 19 of her crew were rescued by Arctic Viking.
The vault also contains a Hull History Centre catalogue lead for verbatim notes of a Ministry of Transport formal investigation into the collision, dated July 1956. The detailed investigation text itself is not currently present in the live notes, so this page treats the formal inquiry as an important research lead rather than quoting findings not yet checked.
The Arctic Viking survived the collision, but the incident added to the sense that this was a vessel with a hard and unsettled post-war record. Interpretive summary from the Arctic Viking Obsidian research vault
20 August 1958
Oil fire aboard at St Andrew's Dock
On 20 August 1958, Arctic Viking was lying in St Andrew's Dock, Hull, preparing to sail for the White Sea fishing grounds. The newspaper clipping in the vault says the blaze began about four hours before sailing. A watchman and a steam raiser were aboard at the time.
The fire was believed to have been caused by a flashback in the boiler room. It became an oil blaze, and the heat was intense enough to melt metal and buckle steel plates. Flames moved from the boiler room through companionways and up into Skipper George Cavill's quarters and the bridge.
Twenty Hull firemen arrived just before 6 a.m. with water tenders, emergency tenders and a fire float. Wearing breathing apparatus, they went below through blinding smoke and fought the fire with water jets. Tug crews moved three trawlers moored alongside Arctic Viking out of danger while the fire was still burning.
One fireman, Thomas Hagan, was burned on the hands and face by a flashback and was taken to hospital before later being sent home. The clipping says firemen had the fire confined after around ninety dangerous minutes, but it took about another hour before the blaze was out. Firefighters then stood by while the gutted parts of the vessel cooled.
Damage and delay
The centre of the vessel gutted
Once the fire was out, the damage was found to be severe. The newspaper clipping says almost the whole of the centre section above the boiler room was badly damaged. Aluminium sheathing around the funnel had melted. Steelwork had buckled. The skipper's bathroom was completely destroyed, and both his cabin and the bridge suffered heat and water damage.
Navigation and communication equipment also had to be replaced. The report names radar, echo-sounding and radio equipment worth thousands of pounds, together with a great deal of wiring. This was not a small machinery fault; it was a major interruption to the vessel's working life.
The Arctic Viking was expected to be out of commission for about a month. Stores for the planned three-week White Sea voyage, including boxes of cheese and butter, bread and sacks of vegetables, had to be taken back off the ship. The crew were signed off and allocated to other vessels in the fleet.
A Boyd Line spokesman told the Hull Daily Mail that the brigade's quick turnout had prevented something worse, and watching trawlermen praised the firemen's work. The fire was another moment when Arctic Viking narrowly avoided a far greater disaster.
Combined chronology
1956 to 1958 in the ship's record
Collision near Bear Island
Arctic Viking collides with St. Celestin H232. St. Celestin sinks, but her crew are saved.
Formal investigation archive lead
The Hull History Centre catalogue records verbatim notes for a Ministry of Transport formal investigation into the collision.
Boiler-room fire in Hull
An oil blaze starts about four hours before Arctic Viking is due to sail for the White Sea.
Repairs after fire
The damaged trawler is expected to be out of commission for about a month while fire damage is repaired and equipment replaced.
Sources used include the Arctic Viking Obsidian research vault notes for St. Celestin H232, the 1956 and 1958 timeline notes, Boiler Fire, The loss of the Arctic Viking H452, George Cavill, Arctic Pioneer Brief History, and the Hull History Centre catalogue lead for the 1956 collision investigation. Where formal inquiry findings are not yet transcribed in the vault, this page avoids inventing them.