MV Bermuda

MV Bermuda was a 19,086 GRT passenger ship that Furness, Withy's Furness Bermuda Line operated between New York and Bermuda from 1928 until 1931.

History
United Kingdom
Name: Bermuda
Owner: Bermuda & West Indies SS Co Ltd
Operator: Furness Bermuda Line
Port of registry: Hamilton
Route: New York – Hamilton
Builder: Workman, Clark and Company
Launched: 28 July 1927
Completed: December 1927
In service: January 1928
Out of service: June 1931
Identification:
Fate: Wrecked
General characteristics
Tonnage:
  • 19,086 GRT
  • tonnage under deck 12,037
  • 11,281 NRT
Length: 525.9 ft (160.3 m)
Beam: 74.1 ft (22.6 m)
Draught: 16 ft 9 in (5.11 m)
Depth: 39.6 ft (12.1 m)
Installed power: 2,772 NHP
Propulsion: 16-cylinder two-stroke diesel engine
Speed: 17 knots (31 km/h)
Capacity:
  • 691 passengers:
  • 616 first class
  • 75 second class

She was damaged by two fires in 1931, the second of which put her beyond economic repair. In 1933 she was being towed to be scrapped when she broke adrift, ran ashore and was wrecked.

Bermuda has been referred to as the unluckiest liner ever built[1] or ever to go afloat.[2]

Building

Furness, Withy ordered Bermuda in 1926 to exploit an opportunity created when the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company withdrew its service between the USA, Bermuda and the West Indies. Normally it would take 27 months to build a ship of such size, but Workman, Clark and Company in Belfast completed Bermuda just 16 months after laying her keel.[3] She was launched in July 1927[1] and completed that December.[4]

Bermuda was 525.9 feet (160.3 m) long, had a beam of 74.1 feet (22.6 m) and draught of 16 feet 9 inches (5.1 m). She was powered by 16-cylinder Doxford two-stroke diesel engines that developed a combined power output of 2,772 NHP.[4] They drove four screws and gave her a service speed of 17 knots (31 km/h), which enabled her to sail between New York and Hamilton in about 40 hours.[1]

Success

Bermuda had berths for 691 passengers: 616 in first class and 75 in second class.[1] Her public areas included a cinema, stage, dance floors, swimming pool and gymnasium.[3] She entered service in January 1928.[1]

Furness, Withy had intended to run Bermuda between New York and Hamilton only seasonally, from December to May, and use her as a cruise ship for the rest of the year. But she proved so popular that the company kept her on the Bermuda route all year round.[3]

Fires

In June 1931 while at the quayside in Hamilton Bermuda caught fire. The fire gutted much of her passenger accommodation but her hull and main engines were undamaged.[3] She was towed back to Belfast, where Workman, Clark and Company began to rebuild her superstructure and overhaul her.[2]

In November 1931 work was nearly complete when Bermuda caught fire again. This fire was lower down in the ship, accessible only along narrow companionways that were full of smoke by the time the Belfast Fire Brigade arrived. The brigade fought the blaze but it spread, forcing firemen to withdraw from the ship after barely an hour.[5]

The fire caused so much damage that the ship sank at the quayside. The wreck was raised on Christmas Eve 1931.[1] Damage from the two fires was estimated to cost her underwriters £1.25 million.[5] Workman, Clark bought the wreck, removed her engines and some of her fittings and sold her hulk for scrap.[1]

Shipwreck

Metal Industries, Limited bought the hulk and planned to scrap her at Rosyth.[1] In April 1933 the United Towing Company's 369 GRT steam tug Seaman[6] started to tow Bermuda from Belfast around the north coast of Scotland to reach the Firth of Forth.[7]

However, on 30 April 1933 her two tow lines broke,[3] and Bermuda drifted ashore on the Badcall Islands in Eddrachillis Bay, Sutherland. Her tow lines were reattached and Seaman pulled her off the rocks, but the lines broke again. The hulk was washed further inshore, and grounded where she could not be refloated.[7]

Much of the hulk was salvaged where she lay. But three large parts of her, particularly her stern, remain.[7]

References
  1. Miller 2001, p. 49.
  2. Wilson 1956, p. 217.
  3. Wilson 1956, p. 101.
  4. Lloyd's Register, Steamers and Motorships (PDF). London: Lloyd's Register. 1930. Retrieved 4 October 2020.
  5. Wilson 1956, p. 218.
  6. Lloyd's Register, Steamers and Motorships (PDF). London: Lloyd's Register. 1930. Retrieved 10 October 2020.
  7. "Bermuda". Scottish Shipwrecks. Retrieved 10 October 2020.

Bibliography

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