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Built in 1952 and scrapped in 1971, the ROONAGH HEAD when on the Head Line's Great Lakes service, in dense fog, was in collision in the St. Lawrence River with the Canada Steamship Lines ore carrier TRITONICA on July 20, 1963.
The TRITONICA sank with the loss of 32 crew and the pilot.
In 1971 ROONAGH HEAD was scrapped in Castellon, Spain
Hans Hasse :
from the Red Bank Register mon July 22 1963.
33 Believed
Lost in Crash
Of 2 Ships
QUEBEC (AP)- A collision that
sent the British ore carrier TRITONICA
to the bottom of the St.
Lawrence River was believed Sunday
to have claimed the lives of
33 men.
Eighteen bodies were recovered
and 17 survivors picked up from
the 12,883-ton carrier after the
collision with the 6,100-ton British
freighter ROONAGH HEAD in fog
and darkness early Saturday. Fifteen
men were listed as missing
among the 49 crew members —
mostly Chinese—and pilot aboard
the ill-fated TRITONICA.
There were no casualties on the
ROONAGH HEAD.
Most of the missing men were
believed to have perished with
life Jackets on after swallowing
a poisonous mixture of dlesel oil
and salt water. The TRITONICA's
fuel tanks were smashed in the
collision three miles off Petlte-
Rlviere St. Francois, 45 miles
northeast of Quebec.
Capt. John Swanson, aged 50, ot
Aberdeen, Scotland, master of the
TRITONICA, said he saw the lights
of the British freighter head
through the fog and he tried to
veer off.
But the freighter and the ore
carrier collided with the higher
bow of the freighter riding onto
the stricken ship.
Aboard the ROONAGH HEAD were
about 35 crew members and 12
passengers—among them 5 children.
Capt. William Haddock
said later everyone was all right. |
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