Wrecked off Formby on October 17th 1939 Photo by Richard Williams.
The Ionic Star ( Blue Star Line ) 5500gt was wrecked on October 16th 1939, it lost
it's way whilst steaming up the Mersey Channel. She was a refrigerated vessel
with a cargo of meat, fruit, and cotton and was inward bound from Rio De Janeiro and Santos in Brazil to Liverpool.
She sank on the edge of mad warf, about one mile West of Formby Point, her cargo was saved and no lives were lost, she later became a total loss.
A salvage firm tendered for the job of breaking her up for scrap and the offer was accepted by the dock board, but because of the difficult access with the rising and falling tides they were only able to break up about 50 tons and then gave the job up.
During the war she was used as target practice but a considerable amount of her still remains firmly imbedded in the sand.
She was built in 1917 by Russell & Co of Glasgow, and here dimensions were 389.8 x 53.2 x 32.4 feet.
She had a Triple Expansion Steam Engine by D. Rowan & Co., Glasgow and was a refrigerated Cargo liner. Launched as the Ruberia and was renamed the Ionicstar in 1929.
The Blue Star Line had several steamers in their fleet at the time, one of these was the Doric Star.
She was built in 1917 by Russell & Co of Glasgow, and here dimensions were 389.8 x 53.2 x 32.4 feet.
She had a Triple Expansion Steam Engine by D. Rowan & Co., Glasgow and was a refrigerated Cargo liner. Launched as the Ruberia she was renamed the Ionic Star in 1929.
The Blue Star Line had several steamers in their fleet at the time one of these was the Doric Star.
It was this steamer that only 2 mnths later on the 2nd Dec was to be sunk by the German Battleship Admiral Graf Spee off the coast of South Africa, and of course only 15 days was to go by until the Graf Spee itself was to be scuttled outside the harbour at Montevideo. Rather a bad few months for the Blue Star line.
Photos of the Ionic Star taken in the 1980's by Peter Kenrick, Many thanks to Peter for permission to use these pictures.
Please note :
She is easily viewed from the Formby sands but it is unadvisable to walk out to her unless you have a local guide familiar with the sands, weather and tides.
