MV Bianca C

Last updated
Bianca c ship.jpg
History
Flag of France.svg France
Name:
  • Marechal Petain (1944-1946)
  • La Marseillaise (1946-1957)
  • Arosa Sky (1957-1959)
  • Bianca C (1959-1961)
Builder: Construction Navales La Ciotat
Launched: June 1944
Completed: July 1949
Fate: Sunk, 24 October 1961
General characteristics
Type: Passenger ship
Tonnage: 18,427  gross tonnage (GT) [1]
Length: 600 ft (180 m) [2]
Capacity: 400 passengers [2]
Crew: 300 [2]

The Bianca C was a passenger ship that sank on two occasions, the first time in France before being completed, and the second time after an explosion and fire off the island of Grenada.

France Republic with mainland in Europe and numerous oversea territories

France, officially the French Republic, is a country whose territory consists of metropolitan France in Western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The metropolitan area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. It is bordered by Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany to the northeast, Switzerland and Italy to the east, and Andorra and Spain to the south. The overseas territories include French Guiana in South America and several islands in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. The country's 18 integral regions span a combined area of 643,801 square kilometres (248,573 sq mi) and a total population of 67.3 million. France, a sovereign state, is a unitary semi-presidential republic with its capital in Paris, the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. Other major urban areas include Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Lille and Nice.

Grenada country in the Caribbean

Grenada is a country in the West Indies in the Caribbean Sea at the southern end of the Grenadines island chain. Grenada consists of the island of Grenada itself plus six smaller islands which lie to the north of the main island. It is located northwest of Trinidad and Tobago, northeast of Venezuela and southwest of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Its size is 348.5 square kilometres (134.6 sq mi), and it had an estimated population of 107,317 in 2016. Its capital is St. George's. Grenada is also known as the "Island of Spice" due to its production of nutmeg and mace crops, of which it is one of the world's largest exporters. The national bird of Grenada is the critically endangered Grenada dove.

Contents

History

Bianca C on her first voyage with Costa, off the coast of Genoa in 1959 Nave "Bianca C", Genova (1959).jpg
Bianca C on her first voyage with Costa, off the coast of Genoa in 1959

Built during World War II at Construction Navales La Ciotat, a shipyard on the southern coast of France, the ship was first launched in June 1944 under the name Marechal Petain. Construction had not yet been completed, so the ship was towed to Port de Bouc, near Marseille, where she was torpedoed by the Germans in August. When the hull was raised, it was renamed La Marseillaise and towed to Toulon before being returned to La Ciotat to be refitted as a cruise ship.[ citation needed ] When the remodeling was completed in July 1949, she sailed to Yokohama. In 1957, the ship was given the name Arosa Sky after being sold to Panama's Arosa Line. She was refitted again and became the company's flagship. She was chartered by the exchange organization American Field Service to bring students between the U.S. and Europe. Within two years Arosa Line was forced to sell the ship to Costa Line, an Italian company also known as Linea C. After that 1959 sale, the ship was renamed the Bianca C (the second Costa C ship so named) for one of the owner's daughters, and was refurbished once again. The Bianca C's main route ran from Italy to Venezuela, including stops in the Caribbean.

Marseille Second-largest city of France and prefecture of Provence-Alpes-Côte dAzur

Marseille is the second-largest city of France. The main city of the historical province of Provence, it nowadays is the prefecture of the department of Bouches-du-Rhône and region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. It is located on French Riviera coast near the mouth of the Rhône. The city covers an area of 241 km2 (93 sq mi) and had a population of 852,516 in 2012. Its metropolitan area, which extends over 3,173 km2 (1,225 sq mi) is the third-largest in France after Paris and Lyon, with a population of 1,831,500 as of 2010.

Torpedo self-propelled underwater weapon

A modern torpedo is a self-propelled weapon with an explosive warhead, launched above or below the water surface, propelled underwater towards a target, and designed to detonate either on contact with its target or in proximity to it.

Toulon Prefecture and commune in Provence-Alpes-Côte dAzur, France

Toulon is a city in southern France and a large military harbour on the Mediterranean coast, with a major French naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, Toulon is the capital of the Var department.

Sinking

On the 21st in the afternoon she left La Guaira (Venezuela) for Granada and Tenerife (Canary Islands). On Sunday October 22, 1961, the Bianca C docked off Grenada when an explosion occurred in the engine room in the early hours of the morning. One crewman died immediately, and eight others were injured. As fires broke out, approximately 700 passengers and crew scrambled to abandon the ship while Grenadian fishermen and boat owners, awakened by the noise of the explosion, near the harbor of St. George's rushed to help. Survivors were taken to the capital, where makeshift hospitals were hastily established to provide shelter and food. Because Grenada did not have the equipment to quench such a large fire, a call for help was sent and was received by the British frigate HMS Londonderry at Puerto Rico. It took two days for the Londonderry to arrive, and by that time the Bianca C had begun to sink. The burning ship was in the main anchorage and would block the harbor if it sank there, so a Londonderry boarding party boarded the flaming ship to attach a towline. The anchor lines of the Bianca C were burned, and today the anchors are still at the mouth of the St. George's harbor. Meanwhile, the Londonderry moved to tow the Bianca C, but the latter ship was listing to port. Thousands of Grenadians watched from the mountains as the tow progressed for six hours, but the Bianca C. had only moved three miles (5 km) when a squall started and the towline broke. The Bianca C sank quickly into 165 feet (50 m) of water, about a mile from the popular tourist beach at Grand Anse.

St. Georges, Grenada Town in Saint George, Grenada

St. George's is the capital of Grenada. The town is surrounded by a hillside of an old volcano crater and is on a horseshoe-shaped harbor.

HMS <i>Londonderry</i> (F108) Royal Navy frigate of the Type 12M, Rothesay Class

HMS Londonderry was a Rothesay or Type 12 class anti-submarine frigate of the British Royal Navy in service from 1960 to 1984.

Puerto Rico Unincorporated territory of the United States

Puerto Rico, officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and briefly called Porto Rico, is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the northeast Caribbean Sea, approximately 1,000 miles (1,600 km) southeast of Miami, Florida.

Wreck

In the 1970s, a Trinidadian firm salvaged the Bianca C's propellers and sold them for scrap. As the top of the ship is in only about 100 feet (30 m) of water, scuba divers can reach it and in the late 1980s and early 1990s some removed parts of the boat for souvenirs. In late 1992, the rear third of the ship was torn off and the ship began to deteriorate quickly, though at 600 feet (180 m) in length it is still the region's largest shipwreck. A bronze statue of Christ of the Abyss was given by the Costa Line to Grenada in appreciation of the country's hospitality, and the statue stands in the Carenage surrounding the harbor at St. George's.

Trinidad The larger of the two major islands which make up the nation of Trinidad and Tobago

Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies 11 km (6.8 mi) off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. Though geographically part of the South American continent, from a socio-economic standpoint it is often referred to as the southernmost island in the Caribbean. With an area of 4,768 km2 (1,841 sq mi), it is also the fifth largest in the West Indies.

Scuba diving Using bottled air to swim underwater

Scuba diving is a mode of underwater diving where the diver uses a self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (scuba), which is completely independent of surface supply, to breathe underwater. Scuba divers carry their own source of breathing gas, usually compressed air, allowing them greater independence and freedom of movement than surface-supplied divers, and longer underwater endurance than breath-hold divers. Although the use of compressed air is common, a new mixture called enriched air (Nitrox) has been gaining popularity due to its benefit of reduced nitrogen intake during repetitive dives. Open circuit scuba systems discharge the breathing gas into the environment as it is exhaled, and consist of one or more diving cylinders containing breathing gas at high pressure which is supplied to the diver through a regulator. They may include additional cylinders for range extension, decompression gas or emergency breathing gas. Closed-circuit or semi-closed circuit rebreather scuba systems allow recycling of exhaled gases. The volume of gas used is reduced compared to that of open circuit, so a smaller cylinder or cylinders may be used for an equivalent dive duration. Rebreathers extend the time spent underwater compared to open circuit for the same gas consumption; they produce fewer bubbles and less noise than open circuit scuba which makes them attractive to covert military divers to avoid detection, scientific divers to avoid disturbing marine animals, and media divers to avoid bubble interference.

Shipwreck The remains of a ship that has wrecked

A shipwreck is the remains of a ship that has wrecked, which are found either beached on land or sunken to the bottom of a body of water. Shipwrecking may be deliberate or accidental. In January 1999, Angela Croome estimated that there have been about three million shipwrecks worldwide.

The Times named the Bianca C as one of the top ten wreck diving sites in the world. [3]

<i>The Times</i> British daily compact newspaper owned by News UK

The Times is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register, adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers, since 1981 a subsidiary of News UK, itself wholly owned by News Corp. The Times and The Sunday Times do not share editorial staff, were founded independently, and have only had common ownership since 1967.

Wreck diving Recreational diving on wrecks

Wreck diving is recreational diving where the wreckage of ships, aircraft and other artificial structures are explored. Although most wreck dive sites are at shipwrecks, there is an increasing trend to scuttle retired ships to create artificial reef sites. Diving to crashed aircraft can also be considered wreck diving. The recreation of wreck diving makes no distinction as to how the vessel ended up on the bottom.

See also

SS Arosa Kulm was a passenger ship which was launched at Hog Island, Pennsylvania in 1919 and completed in 1920. Arosa Kulm started as the U.S. Army Transport Cantigny, a 7,555-gross register ton troopship with a speed of 17 knots and was sold in 1923/1924 to commercial transatlantic freight and passenger transport as American Banker. In 1940 the ship was transferred to a Belgian shipping company as Ville d'Anvers together with seven other idle American ships and was the only one of the eight ships to survive World War II to re-enter passenger service in 1946 with 200 berths as City of Athens. In 1947 as Protea and refitted with berths for over 965 persons. the accommodations were probably the worst of any ship of that time. In 1952 the accommodations were adjusted to 900 and she was renamed Arosa Kulm after being sold to Panama's Arosa Line.

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The following index is provided as an overview of and topical guide to recreational dive sites:

References

  1. ↑ "The Grenada Bianaca C Story". divegrenada.com. Retrieved 12 July 2010.
  2. 1 2 3 "The Sinking of the Biana C". grenada-history.org. Retrieved 12 July 2010.
  3. ↑ Ecott, Tim (2007-03-03). "World's best wreck diving". London: The Times . Retrieved 2009-11-09.

Coordinates: 12°03′11″N61°45′32″W / 12.053°N 61.759°W / 12.053; -61.759

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