SS Castilian (1919)
{{Short description|British cargo steamship sunk in 1943}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2016}}
| {{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image |Ship image= |Ship caption= }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship country= United Kingdom |Ship flag= 60px |Ship name= Castilian |Ship owner= Westcott & Laurance Line |Ship operator= Ellerman Lines |Ship registry= London |Ship ordered= |Ship builder= Sir Raylton Dixon & Co |Ship yard number= 618 |Ship laid down= |Ship launched= 26 June 1919 |Ship completed= 1919 |Ship acquired= |Ship in service= |Ship out of service= |Ship identification= *UK official number 143384
|Ship fate= wrecked on rocks 12 February 1943 |Ship notes= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption= |Ship class= Shipping Controller Type C |Ship tonnage= *{{GRT|3067}}
|Ship displacement= |Ship length= {{convert|331.3|ft|m|abbr=on}} |Ship beam= {{convert|46.8|ft|m|abbr=on}} |Ship height= |Ship draught= |Ship depth= {{convert|23.2|ft|m|abbr=on}} |Ship decks= 2 |Ship power= 310 NHP |Ship propulsion= triple-expansion steam engine |Ship speed= {{convert|11.5|knot|km/h}} |Ship capacity= |Ship crew= |Ship notes= }} |
SS Castilian was a British cargo steamship and is now a dangerous wreck in the Irish Sea off the coast of North Wales. She was built in 1919 to a standard First World War design. In 1943 while carrying munitions she struck rocks off The Skerries, Isle of Anglesey and sank.
An exclusion zone under section 2 of the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973 (Prohibition on approaching dangerous wrecks) forbids scuba diving within {{convert|500|m|ft}} of the wreck because her explosive cargo remains dangerous.{{cite book |last=Holden |first=Chris |year=2008 |title=Underwater Guide to North Wales |volume=2 |publisher=Calgo Publications |isbn=978-0-9545066-1-2 |pages=57 }}
Namesakes
Castilian was owned by Westcott & Laurance Line, a subsidiary of Ellerman Lines. She was the second of three Ellerman ships to bear the name.
Ellerman's first Castilian had been Bullard, King & Co's Umbilo, which Ellerman bought in 1909 and renamed. {{SMU|U-61}} torpedoed and sank her in the North Atlantic northwest of Ireland in 1917.{{cite web |url= http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/lines/ellerman1.htm |last1=Swiggum |first1=Susan |last2=Kohli |first2=Marjorie |title=Ellerman & Papayanni |work=The Ships List |date=18 January 2006 }}
Ellerman's third Castilian was built for the company in 1955. From 1963 onwards she was renamed several times. In 1971 she was sold to Maldivian-registered owners and renamed Maldive Freedom.
Other earlier ships have been named Castilian but were not Ellerman ships.
History
Sir Raylton Dixon & Company built the ship in Middlesbrough to the Shipping Controller's standard Type C design. Richardsons Westgarth & Company supplied her triple-expansion steam engine.{{cite book |url= https://plimsoll.southampton.gov.uk/shipdata/pdfs/30/30b0223.pdf |year=1930 |title=Lloyd's Register of Shipping |location=London |publisher=Lloyd's Register |access-date=6 October 2020}}
The Shipping Controller named all merchant ships with the prefix "War". Sources disagree as to whether Castilian was built as War Acacia{{cite web |url= http://www.teesbuiltships.co.uk/view.php?year_built=&builder=&ref=167576&vessel=CASTILIAN |title=Castilian |work=Tees Built Ships |access-date=6 October 2020}} or War Ocean.{{cite web |url= http://www.mariners-l.co.uk/WWIStandardShipsWarJ.html |title=War I – War O |work=WWI Standard Ships |publisher=Mariners |access-date=6 October 2020}}
Castilian{{'}}s UK official number was 143384. Until 1933 her code letters were KCJF. In 1934 these were replaced with the wireless Call sign GBVX.{{cite book |url= https://plimsoll.southampton.gov.uk/shipdata/pdfs/43/43b0183.pdf |year=1943 |title=Lloyd's Register of Shipping |location=London |publisher=Lloyd's Register |access-date=6 October 2020}}
In the Second World War Castilian sailed between Britain, Gibraltar and Allied ports in the Mediterranean from September 1939 until June 1940. From July 1940 until November 1942 she repeatedly crossed the North Atlantic: sailing west in OB and ON convoys and returning from Canada or the USA in HX or SC convoys. In November 1942 she sailed from Milford Haven to Gibraltar, returning in January 1943.{{cite web |url= http://www.convoyweb.org.uk/ports/index.html?search.php?vessel=CASTILIAN~armain |last=Hague |first=Arnold |title=Ship Movements |work=Port Arrivals/Departures |publisher=Don Kindell, ConvoyWeb |access-date=6 October 2020}}
On 11 February 1943 Castilian, laden with munitions, left Liverpool unescorted. The next day she struck rocks off The Skerries, Isle of Anglesey and sank.
File:An MOD warning at Porth y Felin - geograph.org.uk - 876681.jpg
Wreck
In 1987 a Royal Navy clearance vessel spent several months removing unexploded ordnance from nearby Fydlyn Bay that was believed to have come from the wreck.
In 1997 the site of the wreck on East Platters Rocks was designated under section 2 of the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973 (Prohibition on approaching dangerous wrecks) because of her dangerous cargo. An exclusion zone prohibits scuba diving within {{convert|500|m|ft|adj=on}} of the wreck.
{{UK SI |title=The Protection of Wrecks (SS Castilian) Order 1997 |year=1997 |number=1976 |force=13 August 1997}}
See also
- {{SS|Kielce}} – 1946 shipwreck in the English Channel that exploded during a salvage operation in 1967
- {{SS|Richard Montgomery}} – 1944 shipwreck in the Thames Estuary that still contains a dangerous cargo of explosives.
References
{{Reflist}}
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{{February 1943 shipwrecks}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Castilian (1919)}}
Category:Maritime incidents in February 1943
Category:Protected wrecks of Wales
Category:Ships built on the River Tees
Category:Ships of the Ellerman Lines
Category:World War II shipwrecks in the Irish Sea