Metagama: Liner and Cargo Steamer in Collision

on Nov 11, 2014

The Metagama, of the Canadian Pacific Line, outward bound from Glasgow for Quebec and Montreal, and the cargo steamer Baron Vernon, inward bound from Italy, collided in Clyde waters near Dumbarton Rock on Friday night, 25th May 1923, between nine and ten o’clock. On board the liner there were fully 1100 passengers, most of whom had retired to rest. For a while the vessels remained locked together, and, when the liner backed out, the Baron Vernon heeled over, having, been, holed below the water line; her port bows were stove in, and she was thrown stem first towards the north bank of the river. Realising the danger of the situation, the captain of the cargo steamer beached his vessel, grounding her in the mud at a point off Helenslea, not far from the Garmoyle light. The damage to the Metagama was comparatively slight. She had one of her plates broken on the port bow, about nine feet...