Tynemouth, Rio Colorado (Sheila)

A steamship of 3565 tons and 340 feet long. Carrying a cargo of grain. She hit a mine on 22nd March 1917 at N55 00 57 W001 22 38. In 1970 the wreck was sold to T. Johnson & Co for salvage. Now worked by members of Delta Diving. Steel, 3,565-ton, 103.65m long, 15.29m beam, 6.85m draught British steamship. Registered in London and owned at the time of loss by the London-American Maritime Trading Company, she was built at the Sheila in 1903 by William Doxford & Sons Ltd at Sunderland. Her single steel propeller was powered by a three-cylinder, triple-expansion engine, employing three boilers.
At 05:45 on 22 March 1917, the Rio Colorado had just made the perilous voyage across the Atlantic from Montevideo to Newcastle upon Tyne, under the command of Captain A.G. Cromach when she detonated a mine laid by the German submarine UC50. She had been approaching the examination vessel just off the mouth of the Tyne with her valuable, much needed cargo of wheat, when she struck the mine amidships, blasting a massive hole in the side of her hull. Sea conditions were extremely rough and she foundered in just forty minutes.

The wreck of the Rio Colorado lies orientated in a general depth of 15m and an east to west direction on a seabed of dirty hard sand and stone about a mile east of the Tyne north pier lighthouse. Because of her proximity to the shipping channel, the wreck was dispersed with explosives soon after she sank. Although she is totally collapsed and well flattened, the debris is spread over a wide area, covering 105m x 50m of seabed. Lots of twisted steel plates, ribs, pipes and framework are jumbled together, surrounding her three upright boilers and the battered remains of the steam engine.
Built: 1903
Builder: W. Doxford and Sons Ltd.
Where Built: Sunderland
HP: 300
Boilers: 3
Owner: London American Maritime Trading Co.
Master: A G Cromach
Crew: 28
Crew Lost: 10
Passengers: 1