South Shields, Renen (Prospero or Prima)

A 180 foot steamer which sank in December 1920 at N 54 00 14 W001 22 51. Lies in 14 metres of water. Iron, 656 ton, an old Norwegian Steamship, registered in Christiania 54.71m long, 8.4m beam, 4.29m draught. She was built as the Prima in1869 by Denton, Gray and Co. at West Hartlepool and owned at the time of loss by J. Thomas Wiborg & Son. Her single iron screw was powered by a two-cylinder, compound steam engine. Her machinery was built by the Flensburg Ship Building Co. She had one deck, a well-deck and small, centrally positioned bridge/wheelhouse superstructure. She was foundered following a collision near the Tyne estuary and lost on 26 January 1920 (Spokes database records the date as 1st December 1920); she had been on passage from the Tyne for Tonsberg with a cargo of coke.

The wreck is orientated in a south-east to north-west direction on a seabed of dirty, coarse sand in a general depth of 16m (Spokes database records the depth as both 14 and 15m). She is now totally collapsed and well broken up, with her boiler and engine exposed and surrounded by lots of broken iron spars, plates and bits of machinery. The highest section is around her boiler/ engine and stands no higher than 3m; the wreck site covers an area of approx 50m x 14m.

Spokes records the wreck as lying 1610 yards from South Shields.

Grid reference conversion made 23.11.2010 with http://gps.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/etrs89geo_natgrid.asp with Lat/Long referenced as N 55 00 263 W 001 22 879