Thanks to the author of one of my favorite blogs, Map of Time: A Trip Into the Past, I was able to find out more about the ship in this photograph.

En Caso De Emergencia

J. G. Burdette left two links in the comments of  my previous post En Caso De Emergencia. The links led me to blog posts that had interesting pictures of the ship and also keywords that allowed me to find out more information about it. If you want to see the pictures, visit the previous post and click on the links in the contents.

What I found out from the other blogs was that this was a rescue tug and had been involved in a well known salvage operation. I also had the name of the ship which helped me track down more information.

I found out that the ship had originally been built in Camden, Maine in 1943. It had been built as an ATR-1 rescue tug and was to be named the USS ATR-20. However, the tug was not commissioned in the US Navy, but was transferred to the British Royal Navy and commissioned as the HMS Justice (W-140).

As the HMS Justice, the ship was manned by 5 officers and 47 enlisted men. Quite a few men to have on a  ship that was only 165 feet long and 33 feet wide.

After WWII the ship was returned to the US Navy as BATR-20 and was soon struck from the register and sold to Leopoldo Simoncini of Argentina and named the St. Christopher.

In 1954, the St. Christopher, along with three other tug boats, was involved in a salvage operation on the Monte Cervantes. The Monte Cervantes was a large ship that had sunk in the Beagle Channel back in 1930 and was known as the Titantic of the South. Unfortunately, the salvage operation was not successful and the Monte Cervantes was abandoned in even deeper water than where it was first recovered from. The Monte Cervantes is now submerged just south of this beautiful spot in the Beagle Channel.

The Lighthouse at the End of the World

The St. Christopher developed engine and rudder problems during the operation and was eventually abandoned in 1957. Now more than half a century later it is still resting in the same spot where it was abandoned.

Now, En Caso De Emergencia takes on a new meaning as a caption. This was a rescue tug that was to help in case of emergency and now it rests in the Ushuaia Harbor as a memorial to marine disasters of the past.

Steven