MAILBOAT NAME: M/V Zelma Rose (confused with Selma Rose, see below)
PAST NAMES: not known
DIMENSIONS: 30-tons, official # 178616
CONSTRUCTION: wood
YEAR BUILT:1947
BUILDER: Benjamin Roberts’ father in Marsh Harbour, Abaco
EARLY CAREER: not known
BAHAMAS CAREER: at the time of her loss was transporting passengers (“excursionists”) between Nassau and Spanish Wells, Eleuthera carrying lumber, furniture, canisters of gasoline, etc.
CAPTAINS: Captain Edison Higgs
FATE: sank in Fleeming/Fleming Channel, 40 miles east of Nassau in the morning of June 1st, 1952 with the loss of six lives – see below for details. The sloop “Sally” rescued 17 survivors.
OWNERS: not known
NOTES:
- Oona Newbold, 23 a nurse in Nassau
- Carol Newbold, 18, her sister, a clerk in Nassau
- Mary Constance Brace, 61, from the UK, a Sunday school teacher
- Welbourn Pinder, crewmember
- Ephram, of Andros
- Charles Algreen, 44, of Current, Eleuthera
The bottom here is predominantly sand, and this wreck may have been moved or covered by Hurricane Andrew in 1992. The size and date of this wreck are unknown, and so such an explanation may or may not be plausible.”