Social:SS Norwich City
The SS Norwich City was an oil-fired steam freighter powered by a triple expansion steam engine.
History
She was built in 1911 by William Gray & Company, Ltd., West Hartlepool, England, with engines by the company's Central Marine Engine Works.[1]
On 23 or 24 April 1928 (sources differ), the ship ran into the Second Narrows Bridge in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada,[2][3] and lost her funnel and masts.[4]
Wreck
In November 1929, Norwich City carrying a crew of 35 men left Melbourne bound for Vancouver via Honolulu. During a storm on 29 November 1929, the unladen freighter ran aground in darkness on the reef at the northwest end of the small central Pacific atoll known as Nikumaroro Island (then known as Gardner Island). A fire broke out in the engine room and all hands abandoned ship in darkness having to make their way across the wide and dangerous coral reef being pounded by dangerous storm waves. In total, 11 men lost their lives. The survivors camped near collapsed structures from a late-19th century coconut-planting project and were rescued after several days on the island.
The devastated wreck of the Norwich City was a prominent landmark on the reef for 70 years, though by 2007, only the ship's keel, engine, and two large tanks remained. By 2010, only the engine remained above water on the reef.[5] In 2016, storm activity washed one of the two large tanks shoreward and the two-story engine was broken off and dropped over the edge of the reef into deep water.[6][7]
See also
- Gardner Island hypothesis of Amelia Earhart's last days (organization claims radio transmission referred to SS Norwich City)
References
- ↑ "SS Norwich City [+1929"]. www.wrecksite.eu. http://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?108286. Retrieved 11 July 2015.
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedSRT - ↑ "The History of Metropolitan Vancouver — 1928". vancouverhistory.ca. http://vancouverhistory.ca/chronology1928.htm. Retrieved 4 September 2015.
- ↑ "Casualty reports". The Times (London) (44877): col G, p. 27. 26 April 1928.
- ↑ "Nikumaroro, 0530 Local Time, June 2010". Tighar Tracks 26 (2): 17.
- ↑ https://www.digitalglobe.com, November 15, 2016
- ↑ TIGHAR Earhart Project Research Bulletin #80, January 9, 2017, https://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Research/Bulletins/80_LongFarewell/80_LongFarewellNC.html
External links
- Photo of SS Norwich City taken about twenty months before the shipwreck
- Historical record of SS Norwich City
- Photo of what was left of the wreckage in 2007
- http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Documents/Norwich_City/NorwichCity.html Reports from the Board of Trade’s Inquiry into the Wreck of the Norwich City
Template:1928 shipwrecks Template:1929 shipwrecks
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