Hendon, Whitestones Reef, Abasota

Steel, 1,550-ton, Spanish-registered steamship owned by the Montevideo Co. She was built to carry passengers and a 2,500-ton cargo at Newcastle upon Tyne in 1903. Her single steel propeller was powered by a three-cylinder, triple-expansion steam engine that used two boilers. On 19 October 1908, the abasota was on passage from Algiers, via Bilbao for the Tyne with 2,500 tons of iron ore, under the command of Captain Learete, with a crew of twenty-four on board, when she struck the Whitestones Reef, one mile South-East of Sunderland. She was enduring gale-force winds and blinding rain in massive seas, while hugging the coast-line, when, suddenly, she ground to a halt on the submerged offshore reef.

The remains of the Abasota were discovered on the Whitestones Reef in 1995, after a search using a magnetometer. The wreck is well smashed up, decayed and scattered among the short kelp and rocks, in a general depth of 3-5m. One of her square boilers was found lying on its side along with the remains of much scattered machinery.