Empire Sandy is a three-masted schooner providing chartered tall ship tours from Toronto, Canada. She was built in 1943 as an Englishman/Larch Deep Sea-class tugboat for World War II service by the British government.[4] After the end of World War II she was repeatedly sold, renamed Ashford and then Chris M, before being substantially enlarged in a conversion to a schooner and reverting to her original name.
 Empire Sandy
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Name |
|
| Owner |
|
| Operator |
|
| Port of registry |
|
| Builder | Clelands (Successors) Ltd, Willington Quay on Tyne |
| Yard number | 66 |
| Launched | 22 December 1942 |
| Completed | 14 July 1943 |
| Maiden voyage | Iceland 30 July 1943 |
| Reclassified | 1982 |
| Identification |
|
| Status | Active |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type |
|
| Tonnage | |
| Displacement | 740 tons (schooner) |
| Length |
|
| Beam | 30 ft 1 in (9.17 m) |
| Height | 116 ft (35 m) (schooner) |
| Draught | 15 ft 2 in (4.62 m) |
| Propulsion |
|
| Sail plan | Schooner (since 1982), Topsail schooner (since 2008) |
| Speed | 16 knots (30 km/h) maximum under sail[3] |
| Capacity | 275 passengers (since 1982) |
| Crew | 25 (since 1982) |
| Armament |
|
Tugboat history
editEmpire Sandy was one of 1,464 Empire ships built or acquired for war service by the British government.[4] Built in England in 1943 as a deep sea tugboat,[4] she was tasked with Royal Navy work and salvaging merchant ships damaged in the Battle of the Atlantic and other naval engagements during the Second World War. She served in the North Atlantic Ocean from Iceland to Sierra Leone, the Mediterranean Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal during the conflict.
Empire Sandy's Second World War 'Official Log-Books' documented all her wartime voyages including the complete particulars of the crew, names, addresses, ages, next of kin etc. The oldest was the Master, E Thomas, 63, and the youngest the Cabin Boy, Kenneth Lewis 15.[5] She met a storm while towing, with rescue tug HM Hesperia, AFD24 (Admiralty Floating Dock No. 24) off the coast of Libya on 8 February 1945.[6] Hesperia and the dock were blown ashore and lost.
In 1948 she was bareboat chartered by Risdon Beazleym who renamed her Ashford.[4] Together with their Bustler-class tug Twyford, Ashford embarked in rescue towing.[7] Ashford is listed[8] as part of the salvage team attending the battleship HMS Warspite after she was driven aground on 23 April 1947 on the way to the breakers. Ashford is incorrectly identified as tug Englishman,[9] however all other particulars are of her.[10]
Ashford was handed back to the Admiralty in 1952. She was then sold to a Canadian firm, the Great Lakes Paper Company, and renamed Chris M[11] (after Chris Michels, a senior employee of Great Lakes Paper[4]). She then came to the Great Lakes where she spent fifteen years towing timber rafts for Lake Superior logging companies. In the early 1970s the aged ship was to be sold to breakers for scrap, but the steel hull was still in very good condition and she was bought by Nautical Adventures Co. for a possible conversion. They completely rebuilt the vessel as a three-masted schooner in the style of the 1880s, and she assumed her original name, Empire Sandy .
On 5 August 2017, Empire Sandy was in collision with the Liberian freighter Ina at Port Colborne, Ontario.[12]
See also
editNotes
edit- ^ On 15 February 1965 Canada adopted a new flag.
- ^ In 1970, the cities of Fort William and Port Arthur, and some townships, were merged to form the new City of Thunder Bay.
- ^ Measured by onboard GPS while on passage New York to Bermuda running before Hurricane Mitch Nov 1998
- ^ a b c d e Mitchell and Sawyer (1990) p. 304
- ^ 'Log Book 014'.
- ^ TNA-25-5-05-094
- ^ "Brook House Book – Home Page". risdonbeazley.co.uk.
- ^ in 'Part of the Acorn Archive – Hearts of Oak'
- ^ The tug Englishman was bombed and sunk on 21 January 1941
- ^ "Hearts of Oak – Mount's Bay Visitors – HMS Warspite". ancestry.com.
- ^ "Empire Sandy Chris M 1943". www.tynetugs.co.uk. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
- ^ "Empire Sandy collides with freighter Ina". Maritime Herald. Archived from the original on 8 August 2017. Retrieved 7 August 2017.
References
edit- Sawyer, L A; Mitchell, W H (1990). The Empire Ships. London, New York, Hamburg, Hong Kong: Lloyd's of London Press Ltd. ISBN 1-85044-275-4.
- Martin, Roy. "Risdon Beazley". p. Post war. Retrieved 9 November 2009.
After the war they reduced their fleet to ten vessels including: Help & Lifeline, Foremost 17 & 18, and the tugs Ashford (Empire Sandy) & Twyford (HMS Warden on bare-boat charter)). In addition to salvage and wreck removal around the World they ventured into rescue towage and cargo recovery.
External links
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