SS Canastota (formerly Falls of Orchy) was a British-flagged, coal-burning, two-masted, steel screw, cargo steamer. She was built in 1907 as Falls of Orchy at Napier & Miller's Old Kilpatrick Yard, Glasgow, Scotland, for the Falls Line. She was sold in 1914 and briefly owned by the New Zealand Shipping Company She was renamed Canastota when purchased by the Canastota Steamship Co in 1915. Canastota was last seen on 13 June 1921, leaving Sydney, Australia bound for Wellington, New Zealand. Although almost forgotten today, Canastota's loss was a major news item in Australia and New Zealand during the second half of 1921.
SS Canastota is not to be confused with: USS Canastota (PC-1135), a World War II submarine chaser; or another ship, a U.S. Navy tug with a similar sounding name, , that also disappeared in 1921.
Earlier voyages
Voyages of Falls of Orchy Falls of Orchy was launched on 9 October 1907. In June 1908, she sailed from Norfolk, Virginia, for Auckland and by August 1908 had been chartered to carry coal from Newcastle to the West Coast of the United States.
In December 1908, the ship arrived from Manila at Newcastle to load coal destined for the Philippines and one of the crew was found to be infected with smallpox. The ship was sent to Sydney and the entire crew and the Newcastle harbour pilot were admitted to the North Head Quarantine Station, while a relief crew took the ship back to Newcastle to be loaded. The ship then returned to Sydney and the original crew took over.
In February 1909, the ship arrived at Brisbane towing the steamer . That ship had run out of coal and, after then using wood from her hold ceiling and bulkheads to fuel her boilers, had been adrift east of Brisbane.
In June 1909, the ship came off the Newcastle-Manila run and was to be sent to Vladivostok to load for UK ports. From around July 1911, Falls of Orchy carried "case oil" from the United States to New Zealand ports for the Vacuum Oil Company. In March 1912, she was loading wheat for the UK at Wallaroo, South Australia, and in July 1912 was on the Tyne. The ship also visited Portland, Oregon, berthing at a wharf of the Oregon-Washington Railroad & Navigation Company's vast Albina Yard, on the eastern bank of the Willamette River.
It was reported in August 1914 that Falls of Orchy had been sold to the New Zealand Shipping Company. In 1915, she was sold again, and renamed Canastota.
Voyages of Canastota From 1915 onward, Canastota was on the run from the east coast of the United States to Australia and New Zealand, via the newly opened Panama Canal. During this time, she was chartered by the United States & Australia Line of New York.On her first voyage to Australia as Canastota in 1915, the ship carried transformers and components for power lines associated with the Waddamana Hydro-Electric Power Station in Tasmania.
That first voyage did not begin well. On 7 May 1915, while the ship was still alongside Pier 37, Atlantic Basin, at the foot of Pioneer Street, Brooklyn, a part of Canastotas cargo, stored in No.5 hold of the ship, caught fire. The smoke coming from the hatch was so dense that the firemen were unable to enter the hold. Crucially, the fire did not reach the 10,000 gallons of 'benzine' that were already on-board, in No.3 hold. Even so, the holds had to be flooded to extinguish the fire, leaving the ship's bow resting on the mud. The vessel was damaged and needed significant structural repairs before being able to leave for Australia after a delay of some weeks. There was a further delay due to a landslide in the Culebra Cut, part of the then newly-opened Panama Canal. In early 1916, during World War I, she was taken off the United States to Australia runNew Zealand Times| volume=XLI| issue=9267, 7 February 1916, Page 2, SHIPS AND SHIPPING and used to transport Canadian troops and also as a collier and food supply vessel. One of her crew, who drowned in Genoa Harbour, on 24 April 1918, was buried in the Staglieno Cemetery.From 1919 to 1921, she ran a service from the ports of New York and Boston on the east coast of the United States to Australian ports—via the Panama Canal and Suva in Fiji—making the return journey, via New Zealand—Wellington or Auckland—and Suva, for the United States & Australia Line.
In 1920, the ship experienced problems with her tail-shaft bearings. She was repaired in Auckland Harbour, without entering a dry dock, by first shifting her cargo forward so that her propeller and tail-shaft gland were clear of the water.
Last voyage Canastota left New York on 6 March 1921, with a new master, Captain Andrew Joseph Lockie, who had taken over the command on 15 February 1921 while the ship was in New York. Lockie, a New Zealander, was born in 1883 and received his master's certificate (NZ953), in 1909. He held the Mercantile Marine War Medal, for his service in the Merchant Navy, during the First World War. He resided at Willoughby in Sydney, with his German-born wife Caroline (née Borgolte), and their two children. Up to July 1918, Captain Lockie briefly had been the master of the four-masted barquentine Lyman D. Foster—a ship with a colourful history—that later disappeared, in March 1919, between Nukuʻalofa in Tonga and San Francisco, carrying a cargo of copra. Earlier, he had been an officer on Union Company ships and captain of the Auckland Harbour Board pilot boat.She took on American bunker coal at Cristóbal, on the Caribbean side of Panama then passed through the Panama Canal. She next called at Suva, Fiji, where she unloaded some 'case-oil' and transferred numerous birds, animals and reptiles to the A.U.S.N. Co. steamer Levuka (bound for Sydney) together with a passenger, the owner of the creatures, Ellis Stanley Joseph, a wildlife importer and exporter. On 18 April 1921, Mr. Joseph's menagerie reached Sydney safely, on Levuka, and was divided between Taronga Zoo and Melbourne Zoo.Canastota left Suva on 18 April 1921 and reached Australia on 24 April 1921, with Cairns being the first Australian port of call. She subsequently called at Townsville, then Rockhampton (Port Alma), Brisbane (Bulimba) and Newcastle, where she moored at Kings Wharf and then moved to take on bunker coal at 'the Basin', before arriving at Sydney at 1:10 a.m. on 3 June 1921.Papers relating to inquiries conducted by the Marine Board of New South Wales and Marine Court of Inquiry – Ship – Canastota, Location of Incident – Sydney to America, Date of Incident – 1 June 1921, NSW State Records Office While in Sydney, she was berthed at Woolloomooloo Wharf No.7. The captain's wife boarded Canastota at Port Alma and remained on board until the ship reached Sydney; permission had been refused for her to continue on the ship and accompany her husband to America. Mrs Lockie, who intended to relocate the family to New York, then booked herself and her two children to leave Sydney in July 1921, on another ship, Makura. The captain's father, James Lockie, and his mother came from Northcote in New Zealand to visit their son and his family while Canastota was in Sydney. While the ship was in Sydney, two new officers joined the crew.
She had been expected to depart on 11 June 1921. but it was in the evening of Monday 13 June 1921 that Canastota left Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour) bound for Wellington, New Zealand. The ship was never heard from again.
At the time of her disappearance, Canastota had a crew of 49 men and was carrying mail destined for Wellington and a highly flammable cargo.
Flotsam from Canastota was washed up on Lord Howe Island during July 1921 but, otherwise, there was no trace of her. Some of the flotsam was charred.
The committee of Lloyd's, at their meeting on 17 August 1921, posted Canastota as missing, with the presumption that the ship had burnt at sea.
Initial fears
Canastota should have reached Wellington after five days steaming from Sydney. When Canastota had not arrived at Wellington by Saturday 18 June 1921, fears first began to be held for the overdue ship. These fears were compounded by the complete absence of radio contact with the ship, from the time it left Sydney. At a time when many ships had no radio equipment, Canastota was equipped with a relatively modern and powerful radio transmitter, a two-kilowatt American Marconi quenched spark-gap transmitter.
It was first thought possible that Canastota may have experienced engine troubles and was adrift but the absence of any radio contact was ominous. There was conjecture that the Canastotas wireless equipment was faulty—or was partially faulty with a limited range—but that was denied by the ship's Sydney agent. The father of the ship's captain said that his son had promised to send him a radio message, on either the evening of Tuesday 14 June or the morning of Wednesday 15 June 1921, but that message was never received. The captain's father's view was that Canastota had met with a mishap serious enough to have rendered the ship's radio ineffective, within two days of leaving Sydney.
In an article in The Newcastle Sun of 25 June 1921 a relative of one of the engineers of the Canastota was quoted as saying:"My own opinion is that the she has become a total loss through an explosion of her benzine cargo. If that is so, the crew may be in the open boats in mid ocean".By late June 1921, the quoted rate for Canastota on the reinsurance market at Lloyd's rose to "60 guineas per cent" ('per cent' meaning 'per 100 pounds of cargo value'). There was an increasing apprehension that Canastota had been lost with all hands.
The search for Canastota On 24 June 1921, the New Zealand based cruiser left Wellington in search of Canastota. Chatham "went as far to westward as her coal would permit, and a look-out was kept aloft all day, while searchlights were going continuously at night", returning on 30 June without seeing any sign of the overdue ship.
Aside from that search by Chatham, there was little government involvement in the search, which was conducted largely by merchant vessels at the behest of Canastotas shipping agent in Sydney, George Arthur Parkes, the grandnephew of politician Henry Parkes.
On 24 June a radio message was sent from Sydney, "To all ships: Keep a sharp lookout for Canastota. and report immediately first tidings." This was sent as was a general call, the signal of which would immediately stop all other communication between ship and land stations. The message would reach all ships and stations west of Suva, and would cover the route over which the overdue vessel would travel. This message was sent after a request to the Navigation Department in Sydney was made by Parkes on 22 June 1921.
Steamers leaving New Zealand ports were instructed to deviate from their course to search for Canastota. , from Sydney en route to San Francisco, via Auckland, had instructions to deviate from the usual track and keep a sharp lookout for Canastota. Three of the Union cargo ships — Waipori, Kurow, and Kererangu — which left Newcastle for New Zealand ports, also joined in the search. The Union Company's cargo steamer coming from Wellington to Newcastle saw no sign of Canastota.
In Sydney, a representative of Parkes interviewed the skippers of two steamers bound for New Zealand— for Auckland and Ulimaroa, for Wellington—prior to their sailing on 23 June. Both ships' captains promised to keep a particularly strict lookout. Parkes also made arrangements with the Union Steamship Co. of N.Z. for its steamers and —both leaving Sydney on 1 July 1921 bound for New Zealand ports—to join the search.