On this day in 1736

The Ochil Hills run by Perth, Kinross, Alloa and Stirling. They were formed around 400 million years ago by lava as it cooled along a fault line, and are characterised by a very steep slope, or escarpment, which serves as a dramatic backdrop to Stirling Castle. In 1736 they were the site of a significant earthquake.

As reported in the Caledonian Mercury on 10 May, several days after the disturbance, there was “a most terrible earthquake, there being two severe shocks about 11 o’clock forenoon [in the morning], and betwixt twelve and one at night three more, which were each time attended with a great noise under ground, and rent some houses, and so frighted a great many people that they fled out of their houses.”

Incorrect reporting

The report had not been precise on the exact date of the quake, stating merely that it had been some time around the beginning of May. However, a series of Notes on Individual Earthquakes published online by the British Geological Survey staked the date on 30 April 1736, and noted that although it was “very poorly documented” it was the earliest known event at Ochil Hills.

This was far from the only earthquake that Scotland has experienced over the years, with tremors having been recorded as early as the 1100s. A ‘swarm’ of earthquakes centred on Comrie for three years between 1788 and 1801. In 2017, tremors were felt right across the Highlands on the afternoon of 4 August.

 

...and on this day in 1940

Maillé Brézé was anchored off Greenock for maintenance on the last day of April 1940. Several men were aboard when a malfunction in her weapons system fired one of her torpedoes into her own superstructure.

When it detonated, the resulting explosion trapped several sailors below deck, and started a fire. Those who were able to escape briefly evacuated the ship, but worried that they would ignite the ship’s onboard fuel, returned to try and extinguish the flames. The only way they could do this was to flood the armoury, which had the unfortunate effect of adding to the weight of the ship, which was already sinking. Her descent below the waves was then all but inevitable and, when she disappeared, she took 37 sailors with her.

Destruction kept secret

On 19 August, under the heading “4-months-old secret”, the Bradford Observer revealed the loss of Maillé Brézé to its readers, explaining that “the 2441-ton French destroyer, one of the biggest in the world, sank near a British port in April after a series of violent explosions which set her ablaze from stem to stern… windows in the nearest town and for miles inland were shattered by the detonation”.

Following the war, another ship called Maillé Brézé was launched in 1953 and remained in service until 1988. In 2016 she appeared in the Second World War film, Dunkirk, in which she took the place of two British destroyers. When not appearing in films, the ship is a museum boat anchored at Nantes.

The ships had been named in honour of Jean Armand de Maillé-Brézé who had been the Admiral of France, in which position he had successfully directed French maritime forces in various battles against Spain.