Casgliadau Arlein

Starboard broadside view of S.S. ALKIMOS at Cardiff Docks.

Built 1943 by Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyards, Baltimore. She was laid down as GEORGE M. SHRIVER, but was delivered to the Norwegian Shipping & Trade Mission as VIGGO HANSTEEN. While at Naples in 1944, the female Canadian radio operator was murdered by another crew member who then shot himself. 1945 – Sold to Alkimos Shipping Co., SA, Panama, and renamed ALKIMOS (managed by Faros Shipping Co., London). In March 1963, she struck a reef off Western Australia while en route from Jakarta to Bunbury, and was towed to Fremantle. After a dispute over payment, she left under tow for Hong Kong, but the line parted and the ship was driven ashore again. She was refloated in January 1964, but the salvage tug that was to tow her to Manila was seized by the authorities, and the ship was left at anchor. The cable snapped in May of that year and the vessel was driven on to the Eglinton Rocks near Perth. All plans of salvaging her were now abandoned and she was later sold for scrap. In 1969, the scrap workers were driven from the wreck when fire broke out, and the unhappy vessel remains partly dismantled but still visible, and apparently haunted – perhaps by the unfortunate radio operator from 1944. A nearby township which has sprung up in the meantime has been named after the ship.