First World War Steamship loss with the "Mount Temple"
Dinosaurs in the deep !
In 1916, Charles H. Sternberg collected dinosaur fossils in the badlands of Alberta, Canada. At the end of the field season the specimens were shipped to the British Museum of Natural History in London, England.
The Canadian Pacific Railway steamship Mount Temple, of 9792 tons, carrying the specimens sank on December 6, in the North Atlantic.
Merchant ships in wartime are vulnerable targets.
On December 6, 1916, Mount Temple was attacked by the German surface raider SMS Moewe.
She was taken and destroyed by bombs, 620 miles to the west of Ireland.
She - had to be shelled by the Moewe before she would give in, and three of her crew were killed by the raider's guns.
In the skirmish four men on the Canadian ship were killed and several others wounded. Scuttled by German demolition charges placed near the waterline, the holed Mount Temple sank in waters about 14,440 feet (4,375 meters) deep.
The ship was to have stopped in Brest, France, then England where the fossils were to be off-loaded.
@ More about this mamouth story...
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