Title
S.S Minnehaha, 1910
Subject
Steamer
Shipwreck
Wreck
Description
The S.S Minnehaha was a 13,443 tons gross Atlantic Transport Company steam liner that went aground on the eastern side of Scilly Rock at 12:50 on April 18th 1910. The Minnehaha was built and registered in Belfast by Harland & Wolf I 1900. On passage from New York to Tilbury with 171 crew, 66 first class passengers, a general cargo, and 243 steers.
Captain Sydney Leyland, the company's senior master mariner, had been unable to take an observation since the 14th of the month, and by noon on the 17th estimated that he was 170 miles from the Bishop Rock and would pass at least six miles south of the lighthouse without any further changes of course. Fog dictated a reduction in speed to six knots during the evening, and although a sounding taken at midnight showed forty-seven fathoms, breakers were seen ahead only minutes later, and with scarcely more than a slight bump, the liner slid gently ashore. Distress-guns fired by the Bishop Light-keepers brought out the St. Marys lifeboat, but by the time it arrived at the wreck all the passengers had been landed by pilot-gigs from Bryher. The lifeboat stood by until 3pm, when Cape Leyland ordered everyone except his officers and a few members of the crew to board a waiting tug.
The Falmouth Tugs, Victor and Dragon, summoned by urgent radio signals, arrived in time to see the crew start heaving cargo out of Nos 2 and 3 holds to lighten the ship, and throwing it into the sea. Brand new motor cars were winched outboard and dropped, followed by grand pianos, crated machinery of every description, sewing machines, carpets, and other valuable items by the ton. The frightened steers joined the rest of the cargo in the sea, and assisted by the gigs whose roped the cattle alongside by their horns. At least 200 animals reached Bryher safely.
A Lowestoft trawler came into St. Marys Roads with a crated motor-car on deck, having recovered it floating near the Wolf Rock. When asked what should be done with it, the Receiver of Wreck took the fishermen to the end of Hugh Town jetty and pointed out across the sound where dozens of similar crates could be seen bobbing about in the sea.
By April 20th, a fleet of tugs and salvage vessels were in attendance, and the serious business of getting the ship afloat again began. The first move on the part of the Liverpool Salvage Company and the Swedish firm which was assisting them, was to build a false floor of timber in each hold at low water, caulking each seam so as to make it watertight. Other false decks were built in succession at each hatch level, so thar eventually six platforms were in positon in each hold. The air compressors were then started but for days there was little apparent result as the increasing pressure under the floors slowly pushed back the sea.
On May 11th, the Minnehaha refloated and came down so fast that she nearly ran down the waiting tugs whose assistance was not needed. Later escorted by the tugs Dragon, Tritton, and Victor, plus the salvage vessels Ranger, Belos, Linnet, and Herakles, the liner maintained a steady ten knots all the way to Falmout, where she was anchored in St. Just Pool and the remaiing cargo discharged by local labour when the London stevedores specially brought to Cornwall went on strike.
Description of wreck used from Richard Larn, Cornish Shipwrecks: The Isles of Scilly (Newton Abbot, David & Charles, 1971), p. 127-131.
Captain Sydney Leyland, the company's senior master mariner, had been unable to take an observation since the 14th of the month, and by noon on the 17th estimated that he was 170 miles from the Bishop Rock and would pass at least six miles south of the lighthouse without any further changes of course. Fog dictated a reduction in speed to six knots during the evening, and although a sounding taken at midnight showed forty-seven fathoms, breakers were seen ahead only minutes later, and with scarcely more than a slight bump, the liner slid gently ashore. Distress-guns fired by the Bishop Light-keepers brought out the St. Marys lifeboat, but by the time it arrived at the wreck all the passengers had been landed by pilot-gigs from Bryher. The lifeboat stood by until 3pm, when Cape Leyland ordered everyone except his officers and a few members of the crew to board a waiting tug.
The Falmouth Tugs, Victor and Dragon, summoned by urgent radio signals, arrived in time to see the crew start heaving cargo out of Nos 2 and 3 holds to lighten the ship, and throwing it into the sea. Brand new motor cars were winched outboard and dropped, followed by grand pianos, crated machinery of every description, sewing machines, carpets, and other valuable items by the ton. The frightened steers joined the rest of the cargo in the sea, and assisted by the gigs whose roped the cattle alongside by their horns. At least 200 animals reached Bryher safely.
A Lowestoft trawler came into St. Marys Roads with a crated motor-car on deck, having recovered it floating near the Wolf Rock. When asked what should be done with it, the Receiver of Wreck took the fishermen to the end of Hugh Town jetty and pointed out across the sound where dozens of similar crates could be seen bobbing about in the sea.
By April 20th, a fleet of tugs and salvage vessels were in attendance, and the serious business of getting the ship afloat again began. The first move on the part of the Liverpool Salvage Company and the Swedish firm which was assisting them, was to build a false floor of timber in each hold at low water, caulking each seam so as to make it watertight. Other false decks were built in succession at each hatch level, so thar eventually six platforms were in positon in each hold. The air compressors were then started but for days there was little apparent result as the increasing pressure under the floors slowly pushed back the sea.
On May 11th, the Minnehaha refloated and came down so fast that she nearly ran down the waiting tugs whose assistance was not needed. Later escorted by the tugs Dragon, Tritton, and Victor, plus the salvage vessels Ranger, Belos, Linnet, and Herakles, the liner maintained a steady ten knots all the way to Falmout, where she was anchored in St. Just Pool and the remaiing cargo discharged by local labour when the London stevedores specially brought to Cornwall went on strike.
Description of wreck used from Richard Larn, Cornish Shipwrecks: The Isles of Scilly (Newton Abbot, David & Charles, 1971), p. 127-131.
Date
1910
Rights
Morrab Library
Format
Print
Identifier
COLLINS.126
Coverage
Bryher, Isles of Scilly