BOSWORTH SHIPS BELL

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aukepalmhof
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Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:28 am

BOSWORTH SHIPS BELL

Post by aukepalmhof » Wed Apr 28, 2021 7:44 pm

The ships-bell depict on this stamp, is identified by Watercraft Philately as belonging to the British ship BOSWORTH. The bell is now in the St Pierre Museum.
The bell now hangs in a fancy support dredged up several years later from the roadstead of St Pierre when it was deepened.
The bell is 22.86cm high and with a diameter of 30.48cm, weighing 20 pounds.

The BOSWORTH was built as a cargo vessel under yard no 304 by the Burntisland Shipbuilding Co. Ltd, Burntisland, Scotland for the Grand Union (Shipping) Ltd., London.
15 November 1945 laid down.
18 February 1946 launched as the BOSWORTH.
Tonnage 865 grt, 455 net, 1,062 dwt. Dim 58.6 x 9.7 x 4.20m.
Powered by a one 4-cyl 2SA oil engine manufactured by British Polar Engines Ltd, Glasgow. 690 hp, one shaft, speed 10 knots.
06 September 1946 completed.

1964 Sold to Valier Bouchard, London / Riviere du Loup, Quebec, Canada. Not renamed.
She got a charter with H.C. Druce & Co, Montreal, and sailed in ballast from the U.K. to North Sydney, NS, Canada to load a cargo of coal.
The weather was very bad and she suffered severely from several winter storms when crossing the North Atlantic in ballast.
On arrival in North Sydney, she loaded 1,000 tons of coal, where after she sailed for Bonavista, New Foundland.
When she left North Sydney she did run in another severe storm, and the poorly trimmed cargo of coal shifted.
19 January 1965 the storm reached its full intensity, and the BOSWORTH began taken water in the hold. Coal dust soon began to clog the pumps and the vessel started listing, the captain got afraid that she would capsize. He decided to beach the vessel so soon as possible to save the lives of the crew and to salvage the vessel when the storm subsided.
After she was beached was the crew rescued via a line with the shore secured by rescuers on land.
The storm continued for three days while the ship remaining hard aground, and the hope of the Captain of refloating the vessel was gone.
The BOSWORTH began to break up, coal spilled out of great cracks in the hull and washed ashore, and many islanders' homes that winter was heated with coal from the vessel.
The BOSWORTH was a complete loss and was broken up on 25 January 1965.

Source: Watercraft Philately Jan-Feb 1976 page 40. Miramar and “Shipwreck at St Pierre” by J.P. Andrieux.
St Pierre et Miquelon 1971 20Fr sg 498. Scott 415.
Attachments
Image (73).jpg
1971 BOSWORTH Bell-Marine.jpg

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