Kielce (ship)

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Kielce p1
Ship data
flag PolandPoland Poland
other ship names

Edgar Wakeman

class N3-SA2
Shipyard Pennsylvania Shipyard, Beaumont
Build number 304
Launch September 1943
Whereabouts Sank after a collision in 1946
Ship dimensions and crew
length
78.9 m ( Lüa )
width 12.8 m
Draft Max. 6.4 m
measurement 1791 GRT
Machine system
machine 1 × compound steam engine
Top
speed 		10 kn (19 km / h)

The Kielce was a cargo ship built in 1944 . It sank, loaded with ammunition, at Folkestone in 1946 . During salvage work on the wreck, there was an explosion in 1967.

history

The ship was on the shipyard built Pennsylvania Shipyard in Beaumont. The launching of the ship took place in September 1943, with completion in 1944. The ship was part of a 1942 American US in various shipyards built class of 36 ships of the type N3-SA2 and was identified as Edgar Wakeman put into service.

At the request of the Polish government-in-exile, the ship was given to Poland on March 12, 1944 as one of five ships of the type under the US loan and lease law and renamed Kielce . It was named after the city of Kielce in the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship . The ship was used in coastal traffic in the North and Baltic Seas , u. a. also to supply the US troops stationed in Germany after the Second World War .

On September 8, 1946, the ship was on a trip with explosives and ammunition from Southampton to Bremerhaven when it collided and sank in the English Channel off Folkstone with the French steamship Lombardy . The crew was saved.

The wreck , which was only about 10 meters deep, posed a threat to increasing shipping traffic. Therefore, in the 1960s, the United Kingdom decided to raise the wreck. For this it was divided into four parts. On July 22, 1967, the remains of the cargo on board the wreck exploded. The explosion shattered numerous windows on buildings on the nearby coast and could be heard seven miles away. The shock wave was registered as an earthquake measuring 4.5 on the Richter scale by measuring points in the USA .

Technical specifications

The ship was supported by a six-cylinder - compound engine driven and reached a speed of around 10  knots .

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Kielce w Canal La Manche. Muzeum Historii Kielc, accessed October 15, 2018 (Polish).
  2. ↑ a b c Project SS "Kielce" 2010. Emito.net - Polski Portal w Wielkiej Brytanii, accessed on October 15, 2018 (Polish).
  3. ↑ Explosion of munitions ship off Folkestone should be a warning to Thames Estuary airport planners. Hawkinge Gazette, June 6, 2012, accessed October 15, 2018 .
  4. ^ The Ticking Timebomb. Southend Timeline, accessed October 15, 2018 .
  5. ↑ MP says explosion risk from sunken WW2 munitions ship makes Thames Estuary airport plans a non-starter. HazardEX, June 6, 2012, accessed October 15, 2018 .
  6. ↑ SS Kielce (+1946). Wrecksite, accessed October 15, 2018 .

Coordinates: 51 ° 2 ′ 0 ″  N , 1 ° 13 ′ 0 ″  E