Preliminary survey of wreck Nimetu-367 off the west coast of Saaremaa Island

Abstract

In 2024, a ship that sank off the west coast of Saaremaa, known as Nimetu-367, was investigated. Nimetu-367, or the Rjabin wreck, is a sailing ship lying at a depth of approximately 66 m, 8.7 miles west of the Harilaid peninsula. Based on sonar data, the ship is 33.1 m long and 8 m wide. The ship was identified using a process of elimination, ruling out 19th-century wrecks located off the coast of Saaremaa whose dimensions and other known characteristics do not match those of Nimetu-367. A possible candidate is the 372-tonne sailing ship Worthy of Devon (Wreck Register ID 1217), built in England in 1851. The ship, which was en route from Newcastle, England, to Kronstadt, ran aground on the Tinarahu shoal on August 28, 1860. However, it is not possible to identify the wreck with certainty, and additional field and archival work is needed to verify the data.