The SS Afonwen was a cargo steamer with a long and varied history of ownership. It was launched on 11 August 1897, having been constructed at Yard No: 326 of John Readhead & Sons Ltd in South Shields, England.
The ship had a gross register tonnage of 3,324 and dimensions of 99.4 by 14.4 metres (326 ft × 47 ft). Its power was one 3-cylinder triple-expansion steam engine, single shaft and one screw. [1] The vessel had a cargo capacity of 5,500 long tons (5,600 t).
| Year | Shipping Company | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 09/1897 | Afonwen Steamship Co Ltd (W & CT Jones), Cardiff | |
| 1904 | W & CT Jones Steamship Co Ltd, Cardiff | |
| 1912 | EC Embiricos, Andros | renamed LEONIDAS CAMBANIS |
| 1915 | A/S D/S Gotland, Copenhagen | renamed GOTLAND |
| 1915 | Muskegon SS Corp, New York | renamed MUSKEGON |
| 1918 | Foreign Transport & Mercantile Corp, New York | |
| 1919 | American Transatlantic Co Inc, New York | |
| 1920 | Foreign Transport & Mercantile Corp, New York | |
| 1921 | American Transatlantic Co Inc, New York | |
| 1922 | Muskegon SS Corp, New York | |
| 1923 | Foreign Transport & Mercantile Corp, New York | |
| 1924 | A/S D/S Kirsten Jensen, Copenhagen | renamed KIRSTEN JENSEN |
| 1925 | Unknown owner, Genoa | renamed AFONWEN |
The ship played an important role in rescuing survivors of the 1908 Messina Earthquake. The SS Afonwen, captained by William Owen, was in Messina harbour during the earthquake on a voyage carrying coal. This event was accompanied by a very significant tsunami. The master’s entry (official number 105191) for December 1908 records the event: [2]
At 5.15 all hands disturbed by heavy earthquake shock causing great confusion on board, rushing on deck but being pitched dark and the air full of dust was unable to see anything; same time tidal wave came over quay which raised the ship bodily tearing adrift all moorings… unknown steamer which was adrift collided with our starboard bow damaging same… the water now receded and ship grounded… At 7 a.m. sky cleared when we found out the quay had collapsed and town destroyed…
One member of the crew, Ali Hassan, was reported as being ashore at the time and the entry against his name in the crew list gives him as "…supposed killed in earthquake". [2]
After the first effects had passed the crew headed ashore to rescue survivors. Having seen some children trapped on the fifth floor of a crumbling building, a team went in to fetch them out, rescuing 12 children and woman. Able Seaman Henry Smith and Second Mate James Vivian Reed were awarded the Albert Medal by King Edward VII in 1909. [3]
The effect of the quake and tsunami on the harbour floor is evidenced by the fact that the ship was anchored in 45 fathoms (270 ft; 82 m) of water before the quake, but there were only 30 fathoms (180 ft; 55 m) when she sailed, loaded with refugees, to Naples. [4]
The ship, carrying a load of pulpwood, caught fire at Silverdale Green Bay, Newfoundland on 9 September 1924. She was later broken up at Genoa in September 1925. [1]
SS Valencia was an iron-hulled passenger steamer built for the Red D Line for service between Venezuela and New York City. She was built in 1882 by William Cramp and Sons, one year after the construction of her sister ship Caracas. She was a 1,598-ton vessel, 252 feet (77 m) in length. In 1897, Valencia was deliberately attacked by the Spanish cruiser Reina Mercedes off Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The next year, she became a coastal passenger liner on the U.S. West Coast and served periodically in the Spanish–American War as a troopship to the Philippines. Valencia was wrecked off Cape Beale, which is near Clo-oose, on the west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, on 22 January 1906. As her sinking killed 100 people, some classify the wreck of Valencia as the worst maritime disaster in the "Graveyard of the Pacific", a famously treacherous area off the southwest coast of Vancouver Island.
SS Sangola was a steam cargo liner that was launched in Scotland in 1901, renamed Goshu Maru in 1923, and scrapped in Japan in 1933. She was one of a class of seven steamships that were built for the British India Steam Navigation Company (BI) in 1901 and 1902. From 1908 until 1910 she took Indian indentured labourers to Fiji.
A devastating earthquake occurred on 28 December 1908 in Sicily and Calabria, southern Italy with a moment magnitude of 7.1 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme). The epicentre was in the Strait of Messina which separates Sicily from the Italian mainland. The cities of Messina and Reggio Calabria were almost completely destroyed and between 75,000 and 82,000 people died, making it the deadliest earthquake in the history of Europe.
Shin'yō Maru was a cargo steamship that was built in 1894, had a fifty-year career under successive British, Australian, Chinese and Greek owners, was captured by Japan in the Second World War, and sunk by a United States Navy submarine in 1944.
SS City of Venice was an intermediate ocean liner that was launched in 1924 in Northern Ireland for Ellerman Lines. In the Second World War she was a troop ship. In 1943 a U-boat sank her in the Mediterranean, killing 22 of the crew and troops aboard.
SS Norwich City was a British cargo steamship. It was built in 1911 as Normanby, and renamed Norwich City in 1919. It was wrecked in the Pacific Ocean in 1929. For many years it's wreck was a sea mark on the atoll of Nikumaroro. The wreck is now largely broken up.
Fitzroy was a steel-hulled steamship built in 1912 at Old Kilpatrick, Scotland in 1912. Thirty-one people were killed when Fitzroy capsized in a gale whilst carrying a general cargo between Coffs Harbour and Sydney off Cape Hawke, New South Wales on 26 June 1921.
SS Canonesa was a refrigerated cargo steamship that was built in Ireland in 1920 and sunk by a u-boat in the Atlantic Ocean in 1940.
The Merksworth was an iron steamer screw built in 1874 at, Paisley, that was wrecked when it swamped whilst carrying coal between Newcastle and Sydney and was lost off Stockton Beach on 7 May 1898.
MV Struma was a small ship with a long history that included a number of changes of use and many changes of name. She was built in 1867 as a British marquess's luxury steam yacht and ended up 75 years later as a Greek and Bulgarian diesel ship for carrying livestock. She was launched as Xantha, but subsequently carried the names Sölyst, Sea Maid, Kafireus, Esperos, Makedoniya and finally Struma.
The 1908 Hong Kong Typhoon was a tropical cyclone which made landfall near Hong Kong on the night of 27 July 1908. The storm resulted in significant property damage and loss of life. The most notable occurrence of the event was the loss of the SS Ying King (英京號), a steamship, which sank while trying to seek shelter from the storm; 421 people on board drowned. About one thousand people were reported to have drowned, more than 20 houses collapsed, and many Hong Kong wharf facilities were damaged. As a result of the catastrophe, additional safety measures were undertaken, including the construction of a second typhoon shelter in Hong Kong harbour.
SS Ixion was a Dutch cargo ship that caught fire and sank near the coast of the Netherlands East Indies in 1911. Built in 1892 and originally operated by the Blue Funnel Line, she was transferred to the company's Dutch subsidiary, Nederlandsche Stoomvaart Maatschappij Oceaan, in September 1902.
SS Dorrigo was a cargo and passenger steam ship. It was built under the name of Saint Francois by the Smiths Dock Company at the South Bank in Middlesbrough on the River Tees in Northeast England for the Compagnie Navale de l'Océanie for the Pacific Island postal and general trade service, for which it sailed the waters of the Pacific from 1914 to 1921. The ship suffered minor damage during the First World War during the Bombardment of Papeete, prior to coming into the hands of the Langley Bros who placed it in the Sydney to Coffs Harbour route from 1922 to 1925. Upon the demise of the Langley Bros shipping firm in 1925 the vessel came into the service of John Burke and Co and was used for the Northern Queensland runs prior to its loss on 4 April 1926.
SS Jebba was a steamship that was built in Middlesbrough in 1896 and wrecked on the south coast of Devon in 1907. She was launched as Albertville for the Compagnie Belge-Maritime du Congo (CBMC), and was renamed Jebba when Elder, Dempster & Co acquired her in 1898. She was the first of four CBMC ships to be called Albertville, and the first of two Elder, Dempster ships to be called Jebba.
SS Sardinia was a passenger-cargo ship which caught fire off Malta's Grand Harbour on 25 November 1908, resulting in at least 118 deaths. The ship was carrying Moroccan pilgrims on the way to Mecca. It is believed that a cooking fire on deck accidentally ignited nitrate in one of the ship's cargo holds, resulting in a number of explosions and causing the ship to run aground.
SS Dongola, launched 14 September 1905, was a steam-powered ocean liner of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O), at various times used as a Royal Navy troop ship and hospital ship.
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