Tag Archives: Ship

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On this day: the USS Missouri aground

21st of January, 1950, and shows US Navy battleship USS Missouri (BB-63) four days after running aground near Thimble Shoal Light in Virginia, USA.

This photograph is from the 21st of January, 1950, and shows US Navy battleship USS Missouri (BB-63) four days after running aground near Thimble Shoal Light in Virginia, USA. She was trapped there until the 1st of February, when she was refloated and repaired.

The Missouri is famous for being the site of the surrender of the Empire of Japan in 1945, ending the Second World War.

In the years following the accident in Virginia, the ship was used in the Korean and Gulf Wars before being transformed into a museum ship at Pearl Harbor.

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On this day: a wreck in Australia

The clipper Hereward wrecked on Maroubra Beach, south of Sydney, on the 7th of May, 1898. This photograph of the scene was taken by Arthur Wigram Allen, lawyer and enthusiastic amateur photographer.

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the clipper Hereward wrecked on Maroubra Beach, South of Sydney on 7 May 1898. Arthur Allen photographer.

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On this day: the MV Plassy wrecks

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In 1962

The Irish steam trawler MV Plassy hit severe weather and ran onto Finnis Rock, Inisheer in the Aran Islands on the 8th of March, 1960.

She was carrying whiskey, yarn and stained glass at the time.

Shortly after the storm that caused the wreck, a second storm drove the trawler all the way up onto land, where she still is.

Today, the Plassy is a tourist attraction.

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On this day: the launch of the RMS Olympic

The RMS Olympic, sister-ship to the Titanic, was launched in Belfast, Ireland on the 20th of October, 1910.

As was common in the era of black and white photography, the hull of the ship was painted light grey so that the lines could be seen better when shown in pictures.

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On this day: the sinking of the SS Norge

SS Norge was a Danish passenger liner sailing from Copenhagen, Kristiania and Kristiansand to New York, mainly with emigrants, which sank off Rockall in 1904.

SS Norge in the late nineteenth century. X

On the 28th of June, 1904 Danish passenger liner SS Norge ran aground near Rockall in the North Atlantic Ocean and sank.

Rockall is an uninhabited granite islet within the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of the United Kingdom.

Over 635 people died, with the highest number of victims coming from Norway.

The liner sank twelve minutes after the accident, pulling many who had tried to jump to safety underwater with it, and drowning them.

Herman Wildenvey (20 July 1885 – 27 September 1959), born Herman Theodor Portaas, was one of the most prominent Norwegian poets of the twentieth century.

Herman Wildenvey

Those who survived were saved by British and German ships. One of the survivors was Norwegian poet Herman Wildenvey.

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On this day: the 1868 Arica earthquake

On the 13th of August, 1868, a magnitude 8.5 or 9 earthquake near Arica, Peru (now Chile) killed more than 25 000 people and destroyed much of the southern part of the country.

Arica after the earthquake (1868)

Damage in Arica in 1868

The tsunami(s) that followed crossed the Pacific Ocean and had effects as far away as Australia and Japan.

USS Wateree (1863) beached at Arica after she was deposited there by a tidal wave on 13 August 1868. Her iron hull was reasonably intact but salvage was not economical and she was sold where she lay.

USS Wateree beached in Arica

The tsunami drove three ships, two of them US ships, 800 metres inland, and did significant damage both in New Zealand (where it also killed one person) and Hawaii.