SS Alba
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2016}}
{{Infobox ship begin}}
|+SS Alba {{Infobox ship image | Ship image = | Ship caption = The grounded SS Alba before it was broken up by the elements, circa 1939 }} {{Infobox ship career | Hide header = | Ship name = | Ship owner = Burger B. | Ship operator = | Ship registry = {{flagicon|Panama}} | Ship route = | Ship ordered = | Ship builder = Detroit Shipbuilding Company, Wyandotte, Michigan | Ship original cost = | Ship yard number = | Ship way number = | Ship laid down = | Ship launched = 1920 | Ship completed = | Ship christened = | Ship acquired = | Ship maiden voyage = | Ship in service = | Ship out of service = | Ship identification = | Ship fate = Sank 31 January 1938 | Ship notes = }} {{Infobox ship characteristics | Hide header = | Header caption = | Ship class = | Ship type = | Ship tonnage = 2,310 tons | Ship displacement = | Ship length = {{convert|76.5|m|ft|abbr=on}} | Ship beam = {{convert|13|m|ft|abbr=on}} | Ship height = | Ship draught = | Ship draft = | Ship depth = | Ship decks = | Ship deck clearance = | Ship ramps = | Ship ice class = | Ship sail plan = | Ship power = *Triple expansion steam engine
| Ship propulsion = Single shaft | Ship speed = {{convert|9|kn}} | Ship capacity = | Ship crew = | Ship notes = }} |
SS Alba was a Panamanian-registered ship owned by Burger B. that sank off St Ives in Cornwall, England on 31 January 1938.
Shipwreck
File:"The Island", St Ives - geograph.org.uk - 27193.jpg
Alba was seeking shelter from rough seas driven by a northwesterly gale and her captain, Joseph Horvath,{{cite web |title=SS Alba (+1938) |url=http://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?138476 |website=Wrecksite |accessdate=23 March 2013}} guided her into St Ives Bay. He mistook the lights of Porthmeor for the lights of St Ives, and Alba went aground on the Three Brothers Rocks.
All Alba{{'}}s 23 crew members were initially rescued on the first run by the local RNLI lifeboat Caroline Parsons, but the lifeboat overturned on its way to shore.{{cite web |url=http://www.spooky1.com/maritime/alba.htm |title=When the Boat Goes Out |website=Spooky St Ives |accessdate=22 March 2013}} States that two crewmen died and has image of cemetery plaque commemorating two ship's engineers. With its engine not working, Caroline Parsons was driven ashore.
Using torches and lamps rescuers managed to save all the members of the RNLI's crew, but five of Alba{{'}}s crew died. Three bodies were brought ashore and two others were never found. An inquest on the three was held on 2 February 1938, and returned a finding of accidental death. The Times records them as Ernest Stitanovic, first engineer aged 50 from Budapest; Gyulya Szabo, second engineer aged 28 from Tapocla, Hungary; and George Kovacs, mess-room boy aged 26 from Budapest, and notes that "The two missing bodies have not yet been recovered".{{cite news |title=Inquest on victims of St. Ives wreck |date=3 February 1938 |newspaper=The Times |page=4}} Two of the crew, named as engineers Ernest Stipanovi and Gyula Szabo, are commemorated on a plaque in Barnoon cemetery. Several sources incorrectly state that only two of the crew died.{{cite book |last=Gillilan |first=Lesley |title=Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qXujEPJReT8C&pg=PA279 |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-85458-424-3 |page=279 |chapter=Far West: St Ives and Carbis Bay}}
At the inquest it was asserted that the Godrevy Lighthouse shone less brightly since its recent conversion to an unmanned light, the implication being that this might have contributed to the accident.
Specifications
Weighing in at 2,310 tons Alba was a steel ship built by the Detroit Shipbuilding Company in Detroit, USA, in 1920. She was {{convert|76.5|m|ft}} long, {{convert|13|m|ft}} wide and {{convert|6.5|m|ft}} tall, powered by steam propulsion using 2 boilers giving {{convert|265|hp}} and a speed of {{convert|9|kn}}, which may be a reason why she could not reverse fast enough on the fateful night.{{citation needed|date=March 2013}}
SS ''Alba'' in art
Alfred Wallis painted several versions of Wreck of the Alba, one of which is held by Tate St Ives.{{cite web |url=http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/wallis-wreck-of-the-alba-t06871/text-summary |title=Alfred Wallis: Wreck of the Alba c.1938-9 |first=Jacky |last=Klein |date=June 2002 |website=Tate |accessdate=22 March 2013}}
False alarm
Alba{{'}}s boiler can still be seen on the beach and in September 2012 bomb disposal experts were summoned from Plymouth after holidaymakers misidentified it as an unexploded bomb.{{cite news |url=http://www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/Beach-bomb-SS-Alba-boiler/story-16838342-detail/story.html#axzz2OHVgedLe |title=Beach 'bomb' was the SS Alba boiler |date=6 September 2012 |newspaper=The Cornishman |accessdate=22 March 2013}}
References
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{{1938 shipwrecks}}
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Category:Merchant ships of Panama