Empire Ballad was a 6,640 ton cargo ship which was built by Bartram & Sons Ltd, Sunderland in 1941 for the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT). She was sold to Alexander Shipping Co Ltd in 1946 and renamed Bibury. In 1951 she was sold to Halcyon Lijn NV, Rotterdam, Netherlands and renamed Stad Maassluis. In 1962 she was sold to Compagnia Navigazione Jaguar, Panama and renamed Jaguar. In 1966 she was sold to Olamar SA, Panama and renamed Goldfield. In 1968 she was sold to Compagnia de Navigazione Sulemar, Panama and renamed Poseidon, serving until 1969 when she ran aground and was subsequently scrapped.
History
Empire Ballad was built by Bartram & Sons Ltd, Sunderland as yard number 290. She was launched on 17 December 1941 and completed on 13 March 1942. She was initially operated under the management of Allan Black & Co Ltd. and then Capper, Alexander & Co.
War service
Empire Ballad was a member of a number of convoys during the Second World War
Convoy HX 254 sailed from New York on 27 August 1943 and arrived at Liverpool on 12 September. Empire Ballad was carrying a general cargo and was bound for Hull.
In the 1969 novel, the steamdriven ship is traveling across the Atlantic on a month-long tour of African and South American ports, after its conversion from an ocean liner into a cruise ship. On December 26, the ship capsizes when a landslide on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge produces a huge tsunami. The description of the ship is slim, but in his novel, Gallico described it as a quadruple-screw ocean liner of 81,000 tons, as long as four city blocks, and as high as an apartment building. He also wrote that it had three "massive" funnels. But he also described it as having a fatal flaw: it "was riding high in the water, improperly ballasted and technically unseaworthy." This, he wrote, made it vulnerable to capsizing by tsunamis.
(feat. Whitney Houston) Oooh Yeah Nothing's better than family, For the ones who love you so Be a shoulder to cry on when you are in need They will never leave you alone when your friends bring you down And they drag you through the dirt And nobody is around They will carry you through the hurt Just remember that family comes first where you gonna run to? when no one is around Do you think how dare they will love you. When your face is on the ground? (face is on the ground), When you feel your strength is almost gone And When your heart is getting weak (getting weak) And you don't think you can keep holding on And they stand for your feet (just remember) Family comes first I can see you crying - someone broke your heart, Instead of being with those who love you, you spend time apart, It's because you think they won't understand The pain you're going through, So you don't reach out your hand for them, 'til they'll pull and reach for you. Just remember that family comes first where you gonna run to? when no one is around Do you think how dare they will love you. When your face is on the ground? (face is on the ground), When you feel your strength is almost gone And When your heart is getting weak (getting weak) And you don't think you can keep holding on And they stand for your feet (just remember) Family comes first Don't you be ashamed of your family, put you into this earth, and thats what its worth unconditionally, sometimes you may disagree and wont see eye to eye Don't you run away they will be right by your side ooooh ohhh Where you gonna run to? when no one is around Do you think how dare they will love you. When your face is on the ground? (face is on the ground), When you feel your strength is almost gone And When your heart is getting weak (getting weak) And you don't think you can keep holding on And they stand for your feet (just remember) Family comes first yeahyeah (yeah yeah yeah)
But for those who plan to cozy up at home on New Year’s Eve next Tuesday, the movie-watching pickings are slim indeed ... Like the New Year’s Eve party on shipboard that’s going on when a rogue wave turns the SS Poseidon upside down ... Footnote ... (U-T File).
Arguably the greatest of the wave of Irwin Allen disaster movies in the ’70s, The PoseidonAdventure takes place inside the titular SS Poseidon, a cruise ship that’s hit with a rogue wave on New Year’s Eve, flipping the boat upside down.
The incident, which saw HMSPoseidon (P99) collide with a Chinese cargo ship, was a particularly deadly learning experience, and while controversial, this isn’t where public interest lies ... HMS Poseidon (P99) collides with the SS Yuta.
Poseidon... The Poseidon Adventure ... For starters, the SS Poseidon looks pretty dang good when it flips over these many decades later, but it's the Irwin Allen film’s cast that really elevates it.
The film is about a group of passengers aboard an aged luxury ocean liner ship named SS Poseidon from New York City to Athens, who get badly trapped in an unexpected and damaging under-sea earthquake and TsunamiWave.
1972’s The PoseidonAdventure was the second ... The Poseidon Adventure found some of the 1970s most famous names aboard the ill-fated SS Poseidon, overturned by a tsunami en route to Athens.
San Diego Union-Tribune
26 Dec 2024
San Diego Union-Tribune
26 Dec 2024