Kingston Turquoise (H50) was 811 tons and was owned by Kingston Steam Trawling Company. This trawler was lost off Northern Scotland on January 26 1965.
Skippered by Colin Cross, the Kingston Turquoise left Hull just before Christmas 1964. Bad weather at Iceland mean that she had on board a poor catch of just 1500 kits. On the 25th January 1965 she was on her way home and was approaching the coastline of Scotland. At around 1700hrs the everything was quiet and the Mate Bill Ward had just sighted and charted Brough Head Light on the NorthWestern side of Orkney island. Walter Denton was on the wheel; the deckie learner John Seymour was down in the galley brewing up for the crew; the Skipper Colin Cross was also on the bridge keeping a watchful eye on things.
The Kingston Turquoise was doing a steady 14-knots when all of a sudden there was large bang and the ship shuddered. This was at 0510hrs. Those on the bridge and watch down down below thought at first that there had been an explosion in the engine-room, but they soon realised that they had grounded. The 205-foot vessel had struck a small uncharted reef about 14 miles from Hoyhead.
At 0513 hrs the Turquoise cleared the reef but began taking on water and was sinking fast. In fact she took just under four minutes to sink, the engine room rapidly filling with water and the vessel developing a heavy starboard list. The trawler began to sink with a heavy starboard list and her rail was starting to get submerged. With her engines still going full ahead she started to turn in a circle to her starboard, this due partially to her listing. She gradually sank, going down firstly by the stern.
At 0515, The skipper decided to give the order to abandon the stricken vessel. Skipper Colin Cross and the deckie John Seymour launched one inflatable life-raft, whilst the Mate Bill Ward along with Walter Denton launched the other inflatable life-raft. On the boat-deck the crew organised themselves into two groups and took to the life-rafts.
All but Walter Denton got into the boats. Very gallantly, after helping to launch the lifeboats, and seeing the crew off Walter Denton turned back and went back down the portside well-deck to the wheelhouse to rescue his pet dog Lassie. As the Kingston Turquoise finally healed over, Walter then decided to jump clear of the vessel and leaped from its high side, but was unable to reach the rafts. The water temperature was barely above freezing and there was a strong current running. Men on the rafts could hear him calling to them but they were unable to reach him as he was some forty yards away. He floated further and further away and the last words they heard from him was "Hurry up lads, hurry up please". This hero of many wartime missions was never seen or heard from again.
The mayday call put out from the Kingston Turquoise was answered by Wick Radio at 0516. At 0520 Wick Radio was urgently requested more information from the Turquoise but received no answer. With the aid of the Royal Air Force, 'Operation Playmate' was quicky launched. At 0525 an RAF Shackleton reconnaissance aircraft was scrambled from Ballykelly in poor visibility. A ray of hope was given to the crew when at round 0800 they spotted the aircraft. The RAF Shackleton quickly spotted the stricken vessel along with her survivors and dropped marker flares in the area.
At 0822 the Stromness lifeboat picked up the survivors. She was aided by the marker flares droped by the RAF Shackleton.
The Hull trawler Stella Arcturus and other vessels from Hull, Grimsby and Aberdeen continued the search for the missing crewman. At 1030hrs the search was abandoned.