Over the Waves: SS Florizel

NOTE 2018: I posted an updated copy of my Florizel article here for the centenary commemoration of the wreck.

In 1909, the Red Cross line, owned by Bowring Brothers commissioned the construction of their flagship vessel, the SS Florizel. She was built to replace the SS Silva, and would act as passenger vessel, troopship, and sealing ship. The Florizel lead a proud career until the fateful night when she sank off the coast of Cappahayden. She has a bunch of stories to tell, but right now, let's look at her stats.

In The Harbour: August 1st-7th (Montreal Edition)

Happy Friday everyone! I hope this week has gone well for you all! As promised, here is a special edition of This Week, featuring the beautiful harbour front of Montreal, Quebec! Just a quick note before we start off... The lovely folks at VOCM (our local AM news for those of you not from Newfoundland) busted the myth of the Palembang and her presence in the harbour this week. She has been brought down to recover the Turrett Cover Plate from these Terra Nova Field. It was hoisted onto the deck of the Palembang just over a week ago, at which time she returned to St. John's and has been towering over downtown ever since.

Now, onto Montreal!

In The Harbour, QuebecOriginalShipsterAugust 9, 2014crane, dafour, famille, harbour, hercules, montreal, tourComment

Over the Waves: HMCS West York

Happy Tuesday everyone! Sorry for the delay in posting. I was in Montreal this past weekend and upon returning to my hotel last night the best you folks would have gotten was "hfsuifgdskbfsdj zzzzzzzzz". And so, I opted to postpone my Monday entry so I was in a better headspace to tell you all about the HMCS West York.

In The Harbour: July 25th-31st

This week saw an assortment of ships come along. I've picked three that I thought were particularly cool to feature this week. Additionally, the featured picture is of a tug moving a platform across the harbour, which happened early this week. I know the tug was strapped to the side of the platform for ages before it went to work this month, but that's about all I know. If you have any more information about it, please let me know!

Now, for our first ship, we have...

Vizconde de Eza

Over the Waves: HMS Calypso

At the turn of the century, Newfoundland did not have a standing military force. They had many cadet groups, such as the Church Lads Brigade (CLB) and the Catholic Cadet Corps (CCC), but none of these were sanctioned protection groups. In 1902 the decision was made to change this, and the Newfoundland Royal Naval Reserve was born. Now, all they needed was a vessel to train their new sailors. Thats where the HMS Calypso came in.

In The Harbour: July 18th-24th

For those of you who follow my Twitter, you'll know that this has been a pretty interesting week, harbour wise. We've had some heavy duty ships in this week. Here's the scoop...

Leonardo da Vinci

Over the Waves: SS Ethie

After covering an Eastern Newfoundland wreck last week, I decided to go right across to the West Coast for this week. The SS Ethie was a ship of the Alphabet Fleet, a series of vessels that were commissioned by the Reid Newfoundland Company. The vessels were named after Scottish places that ended in 'E', and each was christened with the next consecutive name in the alphabet.

In The Harbour: July 12th-July 17th

It was a beautiful week of hot Canadian summer weather! St. John's doesn't usually get weather like this, so it's definitely been welcome! And in port to enjoy this fine weather were the following Canadian ships and their crews...

Over the Waves: SS Charcot

The SS Charcot was a whaling vessel owned by the Hawke Whaling Co. She and her four sister ships, the SS Southern Foam, the SS Sposa, the SS Stoika, and the SS Sukha, sank in this area in the 1960s. The Southern Foam and Sukha were deliberately scuttled by their owner. The Charcot was destined for the same fate, but bad weather pulled her from her moorings and drove her onto the shore. For years some locals discussed pulling her out and sinking her entirely, but for now she and her sister ships are being marketed as underwater tourism attractions.

In The Harbour: July 6th-July 11th

As I mentioned in my introduction, the diversity of the ships that come through the Narrows is something that keeps drawing me back to the harbour. This week, I'm doing a breakdown of some ones I found particularly interesting.