The Enrico Parodi (Wreck)

 First World War 1914-1918, shipwreck, interesting place, draw only border

First called the King Edgar when launching the new steamer from the yard of Osbourne Graham in Sunderland in 1903.

The next British owners decided to change the name to Boscombe. Then, just before the start of WW1 she was bought by an Italian shipping firm, which, of course, meant another change of name: she finally went to war as Enrico Parodi.

The Parodi, a 337ft long collier, carried war cargoes of coal from Wales to the Mediterranean for the next two years. Her three-cylinder triple-expansion engines, also built in Sunderland, gave little trouble during any of these runs, nor was she bothered by U-boats.

On 20 July 1916, she steamed into thick fog in the Bristol Channel while heading for Messina with a full cargo of coal taken on at Cardiff.
The area covered by fog was huge, with ships reportedly in trouble all along the coast of north Cornwall. One victim was the 3000 ton Glasgow steamer Neto, which had grounded below Gurnard's Head while trying to carry hay and fodder to Cherbourg for British cavalry horses in France. Salvage began that same day, but two afternoons later, out of the fog came the Enrico Parodi and grounded heavily just 300m from the Neto.

As the Parodi seemed to be well afloat aft of her engine-room, the salvage teams moved over from the Neto to help, using their salvage ship Lady of the Isles to tow her off on that evening's high tide and head for St Ives.

The fog didn't lift and progress was slow. At 11pm the sea broke her open and widened a minor leak in the bow. As her bow dipped, the Enrico Parodi was hastily abandoned, sinking swiftly into deep water off the Carracks Reef.