SS Alkimos

Last updated

Alkimos Wreck (Love Perth).jpg
Alkimos as viewed from the shore, August 2012
History
Flag of Norway.svgNorway
NameViggo Hansteen
Namesake Viggo Hansteen
OwnerU.S. War Shipping Administration
Operator Nortraship
BuilderBethlehem-Fairfield Shipyards Inc., Baltimore [1]
Laid down18 September 1943 [1]
Launched11 October 1943 [1]
Acquired18 October 1943 [1]
In service21 October 1943
FateSold, 1953
Flag of Greece.svgGreece
NameAlkimos
OwnerAlkimos Shipping Company
Acquired1953
FateWrecked, May 1964
General characteristics (as built [2] )
TypeType EC2-S-C1 liberty ship [1]
Tonnage
Displacement14,245 long tons (14,474  t)
Length441 ft 6 in (134.57 m)
Beam57 ft (17 m)
Draft27 ft 8 in (8.43 m) (full)
Propulsion
  • 2 oil-fired boilers
  • Three cylinder triple expansion steam engine
  • 2,500 hp (1,864 kW)
  • 1 screw
Speed11 knots (20  km/h; 13  mph)
Range17,000 nmi (31,000 km) at 11 kn (20 km/h; 13 mph)
Crew41

Alkimos was a Greek-owned merchant ship which was wrecked on the coast north of Perth, Western Australia in 1963. A nearby locality was later named after the vessel. The wreck is a popular diving venue.

Contents

History

The ship was built during World War II by Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyards in Baltimore as part of the United States' Liberty ship program and was originally scheduled to be named George M. Shriver. It is said to be haunted after several workers were unintentionally trapped in riveted-up compartments aboard the ship. These unfortunate workers were found a day after, suffocating to their deaths in these sealed areas. [ citation needed ] It was launched on 11 October 1943. [3] However, on 20 October, the vessel was reassigned to the Norwegian Shipping & Trade Mission, was re-christened Viggo Hansteen. [3] and saw war service for about 18 months, primarily in the Mediterranean and was crewed by mariners of various nationalities. It served as a troopship and transported cargo, in convoys that were sometimes attacked by German aircraft and U-boats.

A murder-suicide took place on board Viggo Hansteen in August 1944, while the ship was at Naples (some sources say Piombino); [3] Canadian radio operator Maude Steane is reported to have been shot by another crew member in his cabin, who then killed himself.

At 2.30 am on 24 April 1952, the Viggo Hansteen while on a voyage from London, via Panama, to Port Chalmers and Wellington with new British cars and bagged cement ran aground two miles northeast of the Katiki Point Lighthouse near Moeraki. [4] The Port Chalmers-based tug Dunedin was dispatched to the scene and by 3.16 pm the tug had refloated the vessel which was only slightly damaged and escorted it to port. [5]

The vessel was sold in 1953 to Greek owned Faros Shipping, of London who renamed it Alkimos, after a word meaning "strong" and a Greek god, Álkimos. The ship operated under the flag of Panama until 1959 when it was transferred to Greek registry. [5]

Loss

The vessel was on a voyage from Jakarta to Bunbury when, on 20 March 1963, it struck a reef off the Beagle Islands, 8 km from the Western Australian coast, near Eneabba. It was salvaged and towed to Fremantle, the port city for Perth, Western Australia, where it underwent repairs for two months. [6] [7]

After the settlement of a dispute concerning payment for the repairs, Alkimos left Fremantle under tow by an ocean-going tug, Pacific Reserve from Hong Kong. Only a few hours out of port, on 31 May 1963, the tow line gave way and Alkimos was driven onto the shore. Although the ship remained intact, it could not be floated off at that time, and so it was filled with water to secure it in place and left in the charge of an on-board caretaker.

Another tug, Pacific Star, under command of Captain E.R. Francisco, returned in January 1964 and the ship was refloated on 14 February, but the planned journey to Manila had hardly begun when the tug was seized a week later at sea by authorities and Alkimos was left anchored. On 2 May, the vessel broke anchor and was driven onto the Eglinton Rocks at present-day Alkimos. On this occasion it was more severely damaged, and all thought of salvaging it intact was abandoned.

It was later sold by the owners for scrap. However, in 1969, salvage workers were driven off the wreck by a fire, and each time they returned, the fire started again.[ citation needed ] After that time, the partly dismantled remains of the ship sat in several metres of water, visible to visitors, before gradually disintegrating.

Footnotes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Colton, Tim (2012). "Bethlehem Fairfield". shipbuildinghistory.com. Archived from the original on 10 May 2012. Retrieved 13 December 2012.
  2. "MaritimeQuest - Liberty Ship (EC2-S-C1) Class Overview". maritimequest.com. 2008. Retrieved 13 December 2012.
  3. 1 2 3 "D/S Viggo Hansteen - Norwegian Merchant Fleet 1939-1945". warsailors.com. 2012. Retrieved 13 December 2012.
  4. McLean, Gavin (1986). 'Moeraki: 150 years of net and plough share. Dunedin, NZ: Otago Heritage Books. pp. 74, 75. ISBN   0-9597723-3-2.
  5. 1 2 Wright, Doug (23 April 2012), "On the waterfront: Ship grounds off Moeraki on Anzac Day, 1952", Otago Daily Times, retrieved 10 February 2021
  6. "Alkimos Ship Wreck". InHerit. Perth, WA: National Trust of Western Australia. 13 December 2021. Retrieved 22 January 2024.
  7. Roe, Phillip (December 2005). "Ghostwriting: The Alkimos and its Ghosts" (PDF). Transformations (12). University of Queensland. ISSN   1444-3775 . Retrieved 22 January 2024.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Port Chalmers</span> Main seaport of Dunedin, New Zealand

Port Chalmers is a town serving as the main port of the city of Dunedin, New Zealand. Port Chalmers lies ten kilometres inside Otago Harbour, some 15 kilometres northeast of Dunedin's city centre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salvage tug</span> Specialized type of tugboat

A salvage tug, also known historically as a wrecking tug, is a specialized type of tugboat that is used to rescue ships that are in distress or in danger of sinking, or to salvage ships that have already sunk or run aground.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marine salvage</span> Recovering a ship or cargo after a maritime casualty

Marine salvage is the process of recovering a ship and its cargo after a shipwreck or other maritime casualty. Salvage may encompass towing, lifting a vessel, or effecting repairs to a ship. Salvors are normally paid for their efforts. However, protecting the coastal environment from oil spillages or other contaminants from a modern ship can also be a motivator, as oil, cargo, and other pollutants can easily leak from a wreck and in these instances, governments or authorities may organise the salvage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moeraki</span> Village in Otago, New Zealand

Moeraki is a small fishing village on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand. It was once the location of a whaling station. In the 1870s, local interests believed it could become the main port for the north Otago area and a railway line, the Moeraki Branch, was built to the settlement and opened in 1877. However, the port could not compete with Oamaru and the lack of traffic as well as stability problems caused by difficult terrain led to the closure of the railway in 1879 after only two years' operation.

USS <i>Windlass</i>

USS Windlass, a Gypsy-class salvage lifting vessel of the United States Navy, was originally conceived as LSM-552 and laid down on 27 August 1945 at Houston, Texas, by Brown Shipbuilding Corporation. Launched on 7 December 1945; and commissioned on 9 April 1946 in Houston at the Tennessee Coal and Iron Docks.

The Aeolian Sky was a Greek-run freighter built in 1978, which collided with another ship near the Channel Islands and after a failed attempt at salvage sank off the coast of Dorset, England in a storm in late 1979.

<i>Pasha Bulker</i> Bulk carrier (ship)

Pasha Bulker, later known as MV Drake and now MV Anthea, is a Panamax bulk carrier of 76,741 tonnes deadweight (DWT) operated by the Lauritzen Bulkers shipping company and owned by Japanese Disponent Owners. While waiting in the open ocean outside Newcastle harbour to load coal, Pasha Bulker ran aground during a major storm on 8 June 2007 on Nobbys Beach, New South Wales, Australia. It was refloated and moved to a safe location offshore on 2 July 2007 before being towed to Japan for major repairs on 26 July 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kātiki Point Lighthouse</span> Lighthouse in New Zealand

The Kātiki Point Lighthouse, also known as Moeraki Lighthouse, shone for the first time in 1878, following several accidents on the dangerous reefs around the area, to make the area safer for ships that sailed past on their way to Port Chalmers, Dunedin. The lighthouse was built between the settlements of Moeraki and Kātiki, on the tip of the Moeraki Peninsula, which is known as Kātiki Point or Moeraki Point.

MV <i>New Flame</i>

MV New Flame was a Panamanian bulk-carrier cargo ship. It collided with an oil tanker off Europa Point, the southernmost tip of Gibraltar on 12 August 2007, and ended up partially submerged in the Strait of Gibraltar. The vessel broke into two in December 2007 amid numerous unsuccessful recovery efforts. The cargo was salvaged and the stern section removed for scrap. Following the crew's rescue, the captain was arrested for having departed without authorisation. Charges of endangering shipping were later dropped.

USNS <i>Sioux</i> US Navy Tugboat

USNS Sioux (T-ATF-171) was a United States Navy Powhatan-class tugboat operated by the Military Sealift Command (MSC). She was in service from 1981 to 2021 and spent the bulk of this time supporting the Pacific Fleet.

<i>Moltke</i> (1870)

The Moltke was a three-masted barque built in Hamburg, Germany in 1870. The vessel was wrecked off the coast of northern Queensland, Australia in 1890 before being refloated and hulked. In 1911 the vessel was scuttled off Geoffrey Bay, Magnetic Island. The wreck of the vessel now hosts a wide range of underwater life and is a popular open-water dive site.

MT Phoenix was a tanker which went aground in heavy seas at Sheffield Beach just north of Ballito near Durban, South Africa on the morning of 26 July 2011. The vessel was on its way to India to be scrapped when it ran aground. After three attempts, it was refloated, towed and then scuttled and sunk in 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) of water, about 80 kilometres (43 nmi) offshore of Amanzimtoti, south of Durban. The vessel was reportedly owned by either Suhair Khan of Dubai or Marika Investments, Lagos, Nigeria.

MV <i>Canadian Miner</i>

MV Canadian Miner was a Canadian laker that was part of the fleet of Upper Lakes Shipping from 1994–2011. Initially constructed as Maplecliffe Hall in 1966, the ship was renamed Lemoyne in 1988 before becoming Canadian Miner in 1994. In 2011, the name was shortened to just Miner. In 2011 the vessel was taken out of service and sold for scrapping. While en route to the scrapyard in Turkey, the ship ran aground off Nova Scotia in 2011. The vessel was broken up in 2014 in Nova Scotia.

<i>Geffrard</i> British sailing ship

Geffrard was a 321-tons-burden British brig that traded between Australia, Mauritius, and Shanghai, and was wrecked off the coast of Western Australia on 13 June 1875. She was built in 1853 by Fred Clark in Jersey in the Channel Islands. By 1873 she had made her way to Melbourne and was owned by Fred Davis and under the control of Captain William James Munday. Her movements after that were generally around the southern coasts of Australia, from Geraldton in the west to Sydney in the east, laden with a variety of general cargo.

MV <i>Nimbin</i>

The Nimbin was a steel screw steamer built in 1927 at Copenhagen, that was the first motor vessel placed into the New South Wales coastal trade. It was owned and operated by the North Coast Steam Navigation Company and was the first Australian registered merchant ship to be lost during World War II when it struck a mine laid by the German auxiliary cruiser Pinguin. The Nimbin was on its way from Coffs Harbour to its home port, Sydney, with a cargo of bundled three-ply timber and a cargo of pigs. One third of the ship was blown away and it sank in three minutes. Seven men were killed. The remaining thirteen clung to bundles of plywood. Some hours later an air force plane from RAAF Base Rathmines saw the survivors and directed the coastal ship SS Bonalbo to the scene to retrieve them.

SS <i>Kwinana</i> Australian steamship

SS Kwinana was an Australian ocean-going cargo and passenger steamship. She was built in England in 1892 as the cargo ship SS Darius. In 1912 she changed owners, was refitted as a cargo and passenger ship and renamed Kwinana.

The City of Dunedin was a 327-ton side wheel paddle steamer wrecked in Cook Strait near Cape Terawhiti on 20 May 1865 while sailing from Wellington to Hokitika via Nelson with the loss of all on board. Captain James Parker Boyd commanded her.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Attack on Convoy AN 14</span> Naval engagement during World War II

The Attack on Convoy AN 14 was a naval engagement during the Second World War between a British naval force defending a convoy of merchant ships, sailing from Port Said and Alexandria to Piraeus in Greece and two Italian torpedo boats which intercepted them north of the island of Crete on 31 January 1941. The Italian vessels, Lupo and Libra launched two torpedoes each. The torpedoes fired by Libra missed their target but one from Lupo hit the 8,120 GRT British tanker Desmoulea which had to be towed to Suda Bay in Crete and beached; the ship was disabled for the rest of the war. One other merchant ship turned back; the other eight vessels reached Piraeus.

References

31°36′38″S115°39′13″E / 31.61056°S 115.65361°E / -31.61056; 115.65361