Amphitrite - a general history

Completed December 1887; Official No. 92919: Code Letters KPST.

Owners: 1887 Rickinson, Son & Co, West Hartlepool: 1912 A/S Carolvore (Lundegaarde & Stray) Farsund-renamed Carolvore: 1915 Akties Ronald (D Steen) Christiana, Norway-renamed Bygdo.

Master: 1887 A Brockenbury: 1889 Lemessich: 1890-91 A Brackenbury: 1892 Robertson: 1894 Lemessich: 1895 JC Disney: 1897-1900 W Malloney: 1901-04 T Webster: 1906 J James: 1907 HE Lundbom: 1908-09 J James: 1911 HI Gibson: 1915-16 J Lorenizen.

Bound from Hull for Genoa with a cargo of coal Bygdo struck a mine laid by German submarine (UC-4 Hans Howaldt) & sank off Lowestoft in 52.23N/01.47E on 27 October 1916.

Shields Daily News, Tuesday, April 16^th, 1907:
SPLENDID RESCUE BY WEST HARTLEPOOL STEAMER. The West Hartlepool steamer Amphitrite has put into Havana and landed Captain Sponagle and crew of the British three-masted schooner Narka, who were taken off their sinking vessel in lat. 31‘37N., long, 64’49W. It appears that the Narka was on voyage from Lunenberg, Nova Scotia, for Barbadoes, with a cargo of lumber, and had become dismasted and leaky in a heavy gale, and although the men worked incessantly at the pumps the water increased in the hold so rapidly that she became completely waterlogged, and was only kept afloat by her wood cargo.
Signals of distress were hoisted, and on 31^st March, when about 40 miles south of Bermuda, the Amphitrite was sighted. Capt. James manoeuvred his steamer with consummate skill into a good position, when boats were lowered and the shipwrecked men were transferred in safety to the Amphitrite. Before abandonment the Narka was set on fire to prevent her becoming danger to navigation, and when last seen was burning fiercely. The men were exhausted by their terrible experiences, but quickly improved under kind attention shown them on board the steamer.

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