SS Samtampa was a 7,219 ton steamship wrecked on Sker Point, off Porthcawl and Kenfig, Wales, in the Bristol Channel on 23 April 1947. At the time of the shipwreck, the Samtampa was operated by the Houlder Line[1].
There were 47 fatalities in the incident, 39 from the ship and 8 volunteer crewmembers of the Mumbles RNLI rescue team from the lifeboat Edward, Prince of Wales who died attempting to save the crew of the Samtampa. The lifeboat had returned to base, having initially failed to find the vessel, but had been sent out a second time. An oil spill from the tanks of the wrecked ship created an area of calm water, which the lifeboat coxswain, William Gammon (previously a winner of the RNLI Gold Medal), attempted to use to their advantage to enable them to pull alongside. A large wave then capsized the ship on top of the lifeboat, and those who died were choked by the oil rather than drowning. [2].
A memorial to the victims of the Samtampa tragedy is in the Porthcawl Cemetery. The ship had sailed from Middlesbrough and most of the 39 crew hailed from the Teesside area.
The location of the wreck on Sker Point was
Samtampa was built as SS Peleg Wadsworth (Hull Number 2203) as part of the Liberty ship programme in World War II, and was launched on 12 December 1943.
23 April 2007 marked sixty years since the loss of the Samtampa, the Mumbles lifeboat and all their crews. In recognition of the anniversary, a church service took place in Porthcawl on Saturday 21 April followed by a smaller service at Sker Point[3]
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