The SS Alba was a steel-hulled cargo ship built in 1920 by the Detroit Shipbuilding Company in Detroit, USA. Weighing approximately 2,310 tons, she measured 76.5 meters (251 feet) in length, with a beam of 13 meters (43 feet) and a depth of 6.5 meters (21 feet). Powered by steam engines driven by two boilers, Alba developed 265 horsepower, enabling a maximum speed of about 9 knots (17 km/h). Her design and propulsion system reflect the typical early 20th-century merchant vessel construction, emphasizing durability and moderate speed suitable for cargo transport. Her service history culminated in her tragic sinking off the coast of St Ives in Cornwall, England, on 31 January 1938. At the time, Alba was seeking shelter from rough seas driven by a northwesterly gale. Guided by her captain, Joseph Horvath, she entered St Ives Bay, but due to a misjudgment—mistaking the lights of Porthmeor for those of St Ives—she went aground on the Three Brothers Rocks. The incident resulted in the loss of five crew members, despite efforts to rescue her entire crew of 23. The RNLI lifeboat Caroline Parsons initially rescued all crew members but overturned while returning to shore, leading to the death of five crew members, including two engineers, Ernest Stitanovic and Gyulya Szabo, and a mess-room boy, George Kovacs. The remaining two bodies were never recovered. An inquest attributed the accident to the mistaken navigation, with some reports suggesting the recent conversion of the Godrevy Lighthouse to an unmanned light, potentially contributing to the confusion. Notably, Alba’s boiler remains visible on the beach today, and her wreck has inspired artistic works, including several versions of "Wreck of the Alba" by Alfred Wallis. In September 2012, her boiler was mistaken for an unexploded bomb, prompting a bomb disposal response. The vessel's sinking is a significant event in local maritime history, highlighting navigational hazards and the perils faced by merchant ships in treacherous coastal waters.

This description has been generated using GPT-4.1-NANO based on the Vessel's wikidata information and then modified by ShipIndex.org staff.