Tynemouth, Brabo (Laimdota, Carnac, Federica)

A Belgian steamer of 3658 tons. She was carrying 1000 tons of steel plus a cargo of pulp when she sank on 14th March 1942 after a collision. She lies 2020 feet from Tynemouth lighthouse on the inside wall of the north breakwater at N 55 00 51.8 W 001 24 25. Only large sections of double skinned bottom remains. Salvage was attempted using a solid copper cage but bandoned due to heavy seas (Collings). Steel, 3,658 ton, 103.63m long, 14.04m beam, 5.41m draught. Belgian steam ship registered in Antwerp, she was built in 1899 by Russel & Co. and was owned at the time of loss by Armemant Amversois S.A. Her single steel screw was powered by a three cylinder, triple expansion steam engine. Her machinery was built by Rankin & Blackmore at Greenock. She had one deck and a superstructure consisting of a 6.4m poop-deck, a 21.9m bridge-deck and an 11m quarter-deck. On 14 March 1942, she was on passage from Halifax, Nova Scotia for London with a cargo of rough wood-pulp when she was seriously damaged in a collision off Blyth. The vessel was towed to North Shields for repairs but after entering the Tyne she sank close to the inside wall of the north breakwater. Work was carried out to patch the collision damage and inlets, with the intention of raising the vessel but was temporarily halted for the Easter Holidays. A storm at that time damaged the wreck to the point of being a ‘total loss’.

Bob Scullion of the Marsden Dive Centre said the wreck, or what remains of it, lies adjacent to the numbers ‘17’ and ‘23’ painted on the inside of the north pier wall at Tynemouth. The bow section of the vessel is reported to be upside-down, near the rocky slope against the pier wall where there are large sections of double-skinned hull, steel plates and masses of steel hawser cables on the sandy seabed in a general depth of 8-9m (National Monuments Record and Spokes database records the depth as 3m).