The 80-metre-long wreck of the MV Ithaca sits just outside Bird Cove, 12 miles east of Churchill, high and dry when the tide is low and completely surrounded by water at high tide. According to Lloyds of London (the company insuring the Ithaca), it was a British-flagged steamship, built in 1922 at Three Rivers, Quebec. It had a succession of names over its life, including Frank A. Augsbury (1922-?), Granby (?-1948), Parita II (1948-1951), Valbruna (1951-1952), Lawrencecliffe Hall (1952-1955), Federal Explorer (1955-1960), and Ithaca (1960). Shortly after leaving port on 14 September 1960, bound for Rankin Inlet with a cargo of electrical generators and plywood, its rudder broke in an eighty-mile-an-hour gale and it ran aground.
MV Ithaca (September 2012)
Source: Heidi den HaanSite Coordinates (lat/long): N58.76910, W93.88926
denoted by symbol on the map above
This page was prepared by Tim Worth, Amber Lahti, Heidi den Haan, and Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 23 January 2021
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