# Information about the cargo ship Wayfarer 3



## soundlight (Dec 14, 2010)

Hello everybody! i need to find any information possible about the cargo ship Wayfarer 3 built in 1951, sold and renamed Mitera Zafira... pictures..or eny other informations... Thank you


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## scorcher (Jul 2, 2007)

Hello soundlight...here is a link on this site to her, nice pic.
http://www.shipsnostalgia.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/263467/title/wayfarer/cat/510


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## R58484956 (Apr 19, 2004)

MV *Wayfarer* 8150 tons, Built 1951 by Wm Doxford & sons @ Sunderland.
444.1 x 59.4 x 34.1. 4cyl 2S C.S.A.diesel 28 5/8ths x 91". built by Doxfords.
DF, ESD. code flags GMNR. 2 decks 3rd in forward hold. Cruiser stern.
Owned by Charente SS Co Ltd & managed by T&J Harrison O/No; 183811.
Registerd @ Liverpool. British flag.


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## soundlight (Dec 14, 2010)

Thank you! i have this picture..i hope to find someone who sail on this ship..maybe other pictures...


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## motorzbh (Jan 13, 2020)

I don't know if you are still interested but I found the wreck diving there:
http://www.blackseawrecks.ro/wiki/wrecks/miterazafira


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## soundlight (Dec 14, 2010)

Hello. 
i'm still interested, i know where is it, i have more than 70 divings on it...
thank you eny way


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## motorzbh (Jan 13, 2020)

Oh, Nice picture. I like to go back and dive there and take some pictures. If you need info you need to get to a big library and search for Lloyd's register. Or if you live in Italy Rina is a good place to make some inquiries. I am searching for infos about E.Evangelia and have a lot of issues with Romanian authority.


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## motorzbh (Jan 13, 2020)

http://www.searlecanada.org/sunderland/sunderland055.html
I have also some info in Romanian from some diver. Info is a little confusing as some say it carried iron ore others phosphates. Romanian say phosphates. I have no clue if they retrieve the cargo or it was dumped in the sea.


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## soundlight (Dec 14, 2010)

I have eny information about it...on the romanian site they say that was found in 2006....my first dive on it was in 2002...
The ship was totaly distroyed with explosive....was not possible to sunk there...was grounded and the top deep there is only 12 /13 meters and is not enough nto sunk.... so they publish a lot of bull****...
I have many pictures and allso many things from the ship, and this summer i will be there for several months...
E. Evangelia- ex Saxon Star , what do you want to know about?
I have also many pictures and a pothole from the bridge..


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## motorzbh (Jan 13, 2020)

I am interested in the real history of the grounding of the ship. Most of what is publish on the net is rubbish like the crew did it for the insurance, and the story goes even more unbelievable like the Romanians manage to re-float the boat and the greek grounded by night again, Also the ship was own by Onassis, was full of oranges and so on. From my research I know that most of the things are not true. Do you have any kind of evidence of fraud or some pictures before 1980 ( when the holes were done by the navy divers) with the starboard side?


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## soundlight (Dec 14, 2010)

I can say that not everything is not true...they ground it in a night with a very deep fog....an is true that they tow it, in that place the water is not deep...and the ship was nearly empty...differently it would not be possible to get so close to the shore...so no oranges or other...
I will take a look in the pictures i have...maybe i have on with the starboard side...
at the time of the Iron Curtain...many ships was grounded there...
the one was Derna...(currently covered with earth , constanta south harbour) unother one was Capitan Anastassis (same situation like Derna) more to the north was Matty (Albanian flag) broke in two parts..and many others


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## soundlight (Dec 14, 2010)

many years ago...i was on board..if i remember well...was 2001


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## soundlight (Dec 14, 2010)

other pictures


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## soundlight (Dec 14, 2010)

other pictures 2


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## motorzbh (Jan 13, 2020)

I have been on board of Evangelia in 1984 and the wreck was already flooded due to the holes made either by the navy sappers or because the hull was cracked when grounded. I have physical evidence that prove that the ship was not powered when grounded and drifted there. I have no evidence that the flooded happened then. I believe that the owners didn't try to refloat the ship because it was old and faulty. I have found here that two former sailors on Saxon Star saying that the ship was having problem with the engine , once even blowing up and starting a fire. And we are talking of Saxon Star meaning 10 years before Evangelia. The first pictures you put are before 1980 when the wreck was in good shape. But if you have pictures from that period with starboard side broken that means that the ship most likely broke in the grounding. I am trying for years to find the truth about the grounding since I realize that the stories with the rescue were fake. Thank you for the pictures.


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## soundlight (Dec 14, 2010)

I see the propeler underwater very well and i can say that the engine was off when the ship grounded. The black and white picture i have it from a man who is in the picture and is before 1980, he told me that the ship was not broken, the man live there and he remember very well that the ship was towed, the first time was grounded not in the place where is today... I also speak with a old retired tug capitain who told me that a tug named Meteor towed and let it anchored not far from there... The Meteor was a steam tug, seams powerd with a ansaldo engine..
I belive i have pictures on both sides before 1980..i will look for them
Just curiosity...1984 was still the iron curtain...why have you been there


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## motorzbh (Jan 13, 2020)

I know the story very well, but besides the prop issue ( not being bent) there are more problems: 
1. Insurance fraud was made with cargo not just hull. Cargo is more valuable than a 25 year old ship. The ship could take 5000 tons of cargo, let's say frozen meat. If you take the meat from Argentine , you sell it in some remote black harbor and then you sink the ship in the middle of the ocean. Did you heard about Lucona affair? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucona
This is how a fraud is wort making. An old ship grounded on a beach? How much you need to pay the crew to do it? because they loose their license if proved to be guilty or at least be very hard to hire because people don't like captains who loose ships. So you either need to pay the crew well or kill them like in Lucona. This is way the fraud is very unlikely. 
2. The anchors of the ship are on the starboard side meaning that the ship drifted to the current position. Trying to ground on wind power alone is kinda dicey. 
3. Leaving the ship anchored in Costinesti is against normal procedures. The ship was to be taken to a dock to be inspected and to collect the salvage rights. If the ship still had power then it was normal to go alone in Constanta or run aground on motor damaging the prop. If it had no power then the tug was forced to take her to Constanta or to Mangalia. 
I spoke with a lot of people and everybody have another story. Unfortunately I can't get to the archives. But from what I have seen researching Zafira I have doubts that official papers will make some light. 
I swim the first time , border rangers have issues with boats not swimmers as they don't believe you can swim to Turkey.


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## Pat Kennedy (Apr 14, 2007)

Just a thought. Would a conventional mid 20th century general cargo ship be used for the carriage of a bulk cargo like iron ore or phosphates? I never saw it in my time at sea.
Pat


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## jimg0nxx (Sep 1, 2005)

Certainly phosphates. Carried full cargo of phosphate from Casablanca to Whampoa, China on Runciman's Glenmoor mid sixties. Then just to add to the taste, bulk sugar Mackay Queensland to Silvertown London.


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## Ron Stringer (Mar 15, 2005)

Pat Kennedy said:


> Just a thought. Would a conventional mid 20th century general cargo ship be used for the carriage of a bulk cargo like iron ore or phosphates? I never saw it in my time at sea.
> Pat


Pat,

Perhaps you only sailed on ships employed on regular mixed-cargo liner trades. Most tramp ships took bulk cargoes of a single product from time to time, some were employed in such trades all the time.

One that I sailed on, whilst I was on board, successively took a full cargo of unbagged grain from Norfolk, Virginia to Belfast, a full cargo of loose phosphate from Safi, Morocco to Cape Town and a full cargo of loose sugar from Durban to Liverpool.


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## Pat Kennedy (Apr 14, 2007)

True Ron, I never sailed on a tramp ship, but I did sail on a couple of iron ore carriers.
The Wayfarer, in my time was employed on Harrisons joint service with Hall and City Lines to East Africa, carrying general cargo.


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