SS Bury Hill

SS Bury Hill was a cargo ship built in England during the First World War as Cardigan, later becoming Pensylvanie of Compagnie Générale Transatlantique (CGT). In 1934 she returned to the British register as Bury Hill but was wrecked on the coast of Senegal in 1936.

Trading career

The ship was built by Richardson, Duck and Company of Thornaby-on-Tees in northeast England. She had nine corrugated furnaces with a combined grate area of 192 sqft heating three 180 lbf/in2 single-ended boilers with a combined heating surface of 7171 sqft.[6] The boilers fed a three-cylinder triple expansion steam engine that was built by Blair & Co, Stockton-on-Tees and rated at 425 NHP[6] (2,600 IHP).

Trading career

The ship was launched in 1917 as Cardigan for the Cardigan Steamship Co of Cardiff, who placed her under the management of Jenkins Brothers, also of Cardiff.

Board of Trade investigation

On 4–7 May 1937 the UK's Board of Trade held an investigation hearing into the accident and on 17 June the Court published its report. It found that Bury Hill's Master, Captain Walter V. Smith, had failed: "...to navigate his vessel with that degree of care which is to be expected from a prudent seaman in that he did not give the coast, of which he had no previous knowledge and for the navigation of which his aids were insufficient, a safe and proper offing; did not take proper steps to provide himself with sufficient aids to navigation for the voyage upon which he was engaged; failed to make proper use of such aids to navigation as he had on board his vessel; and assumed too readily that the Almadi light, of whose existence he was wholly unaware, was the light of another vessel.[5]"

Bury Hill had no chart of the approaches to Dakar, so when in Durban, Captain Smith had tried without success to obtain one. He was therefore limited to large-scale charts of the area and was completely unaware of the Almadi light. The third officer, Mr. Walter, was on watch at the time of the grounding, and both Walter and Smith sighted the light. However, the wreck of Beryl lay on the reef behind the light in their line of sight. Smith and Walter saw Beryl, failed to realise she was a wreck and mistook the Almadi light to be one of her navigation lights. They accordingly set the wrong course and struck the reef.[5]

The Court considered suspending Smith's Master's Certificate. However, the Court made allowance for what it called Smith's "sheer ill fortune" that the necessary chart was out of stock when he sought to buy a copy in Durban. The Court also made allowance for the conjunction of the Almadi light and Beryl's wreck in Smith and Walter's line of sight contributing to their error. The Court therefore allowed Smith to retain his certificate but charged him £50 court costs.[5]

Logbook alterations

The Court found that a number of entries in Bury Hill's "scrap log" had been erased and rewritten, and observed that inquiries into incidents on other vessels had found similar cases of alteration. The court therefore recommended: "that it should be a standing order on all British sea-going vessels that all entries in log books should be made either in ink or, if pencils are used, in indelible pencil; and that no erasure should be permitted, any alteration necessary being made by drawing a line through the original entry, the alteration being initialled by the officer making it.[5]"

type	cargo ship‡R1R‡‡R3R‡
tonnage	; tonnage under deck 4,233; *‡R1R‡‡R5R‡‡R6R‡
length	400.0 ft‡R4R‡‡R5R‡‡R6R‡
beam	52.0 ft‡R4R‡‡R5R‡‡R6R‡
draught	24 ft laden‡R1R‡‡R6R‡
depth	24.3 ft‡R4R‡‡R6R‡
power	425 NHP,‡R6R‡ 2,600 IHP
propulsion	Blair & Co 3-cylinder triple expansion steam engine;‡R3R‡‡R4R‡‡R5R‡ single screw‡R5R‡
speed	10 knots
crew	31‡R1R‡

Trading career

Trading career

Wreck

Board of Trade investigation

Logbook alterations

References