SS Norwich City
Encyclopedia
The SS Norwich City was a British, oil-fired steam freighter
Cargo ship
A cargo ship or freighter is any sort of ship or vessel that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year; they handle the bulk of international trade...

 powered by a triple expansion steam engine and manufactured in 1911 by Central Marine Engine Works in Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

.

In 1928, the ship ran into the Second Narrows Bridge
Second Narrows Bridge
The Second Narrows Bridge is a vertical lift railway bridge that crosses the Burrard Inlet and connects Vancouver with the North Shore. As the name suggests, it is located at the second narrowing of the Burrard Inlet....

 in Vancouver, B.C..

During a storm on 29 November 1929 the unladen freighter was carrying a crew of 35 men when it ran aground on the reef at the northwest end of Gardner Island (later Nikumaroro Island) in the central Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...

. A fire broke out in the engine room and all hands abandoned ship in darkness through storm waves across the wide and dangerous coral reef. There were eleven fatalities. 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 although by 2007 only the ship's keel, engine and two large tanks remained. By 2010, only the engine remained above water on the reef.

The wreck site has been investigated as part of an archaeological project (The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR)) researching the fate of Amelia Earhart
Amelia Earhart
Amelia Mary Earhart was a noted American aviation pioneer and author. Earhart was the first woman to receive the U.S. Distinguished Flying Cross, awarded for becoming the first aviatrix to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean...

.

External links

  • Photo of SS Norwich City taken about twenty months before the shipwreck
  • Photo of what was left of the wreckage in 2007
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK