Cita Telegraph.

Gibson image of Cita with salvage vessel 'Scavenger' astern of her.

The MV Cita container ship was wrecked here on Newfoundland point south side of St Marys island 6th March 1997. She was on auto pilot at the time and her crew asleep. Someone had turned off the auto pilot alarm, so that when she was due to change course noone knew because no alarm sounded. The man in charge in the bridge was asleep in the captains chair at the time. The crash woke him up. Later, after they got all the rest of the crew off safely, the captain wanted to stay aboard in case he was needed if the vessel could be towed off the rocks. My wife was listening on the sea radio and could hear him refusing to leave. Then all of a sudden the vessel lurched a bit underneath him and began her slow slip back into deeper water. My wife heard the panic in his voice when he shouted over the radio mike for them to come and rescue him. He was got off safely and slowly but surely, over time, the Cita slipped away into the deep. It was most odd. One moment this vast vessel was still showing above the waters surface- but by the time I saw her in June that year she was gone. 

Cita telegraph still in place on the bridge

Scavenger

  I was on holiday in the Islands in June that year and found myself tangled up in the salvage for a few weeks.  I was aboard salvage boat called 'Scavenger' which can be seen in the top picture astern of the Cita. The crew were Mac Mace the skipper/diver and John Williams his number one diver. Myself and a friend called Terry Perkins joined them that June. It was all just a bit of fun, for Terry and I, if truth be known. We were gifted silver coins from the Hollandia at the time-because without a commercial ticket, we couldnt actually be paid for our time. The work was a bit dangerous at times but a real hoot on the whole.  We raised car tyres, grave stones, tools, all orts, oh and the ships spare propeller blade which currently stands outside the Belrock hotel on St Marys-just down the road from where I now live. You can read about this saga in my book 'Wreck of Colossus'. We were mostly working stuff out from the holds of the Cita and from inside the stern locker, as well as from around the outside of the wreck on the sea floor. But when the work was done I went for a swim around the bridge which was in shallower water at the time. There I noticed the Telegraph still being in place. I then returned aboard another boat with some tools and removed it. It took a couple of longish dives to get it. It was situated in about 25meters as the ship had turned right over onto its side. In other words- as I went into one side door of the bridge- the other opposing open door was facing the sea bed. I remember seeing a seal frequently looking up at me from that deeper doorway as I worked to remove the telegragh.

Here I am aboard, Moonshadow going back to St Marys harbour with the Telegraph. When we got back the skipper of Moonshadow gave me another nice coin off the Hollandia as a swap for the telegraph. He then kept it in his shed for years and did nothing with it. One day I went to him and got it back. Here it is below all cleaned up and painted and on display at home.