Tynemouth, Rosa

Steel, 1,146-ton, 70.13m long, 10.36m beam, 4.01m draught. A Belgian-registered steamship built by Verschure & Co in Amsterdam in 1919 and owned by Armement L. Hermans SA in Belgium. Her single steel screw was powered by a three-cylinder, triple-expansion steam engine. She had one deck, a well-deck, four watertight bulkheads and a superstructure consisting of a 42.1m quarter-deck, a 3.9m bridge-deck and a 7m forecastle. The vessel was classed as 100 A1 at Lloyds and was equipped with a brass, pedestal-mounted telegraph and, possibly, steering helm.
On 13 December 1939 the Rosa was on passage from the Tyne for Belgium, with a cargo of coal, when she foundered and was lost with one of her crew, after detonating a German-laid mine five miles east of the River Tyne.

The wreck believed to be that of the steamship Rosa lies orientated in a east-north-east to west-south-west direction on a seabed of fine sand in a general depth of 49m, surrounded by a 0.5m scour. It is very substantial, lying on her side and generally intact, but with some damage to the bow section, where there is a lot of twisted wreckage and debris strewn around, probably caused by the exploding mine. Her bows face to the east-north-east end and she stands around 5.5m high, although some of the hull side is partially buried in the sand. Her bridge structure is also reasonably intact and protrudes from the sand with the upper part of it now broken away.
Owner: Armement L. Hermans Soc Anon.
Built: 1919
Builder: Verschure & Co.
Where Built: Amsterdam
Propulsion: Screw driven, 3 cylinder triple expansion engine
Machinery: 1 deck, welldeck, 4 bulkheads, quarter deck 138ft, below deck 13ft, forecastle 23ft
The wreck lies at a depth of 15m (Spokes). The NMR has two entries for the Rosa- North Tyneside (NZ 46 NE 101) and South Tyneside (908758 NZ 57 SW 1).