On March 10th,1926 the courageous rescue of the crew from a ship named
"Alfa" was recognized by an insurance company in Groningen, The
Netherlands. The name of the insurance company, at that time, was
"Oranje".  Can we obtain any historical information as to what
happened, where did this incident occur, when did this incident occur,
if different from the above date, who was involved or recognized,and
any other relevant information???

<The Alfa was an American registered ship. The type of vessel was a
rum runner. This was a boat that was used to smuggle liquor during
prohibition. On 19th September 1924, it was wrecked when it was
intentionally grounded at Klipsan Beach, Pacific County,  Washington.
The location of Klipsan Beach is 46 degrees 28’ 0” N, 124 degrees
3’6”W (source GSP). There were no casualties.

The fact that the vessel is a rum runner makes it highly likely that
its deliberate grounding was a result of efforts to evade capture by
the U.S Coast Guard. During prohibition, liquor would be brought to
the coast of U.S. by larger vessels, which would remain at least 12
miles out to sea, which was outside the U.S. Coast Guard jurisdiction.
Their cargo of liquor would then be transferred to smaller high-speed
vessels called rum runners. They would ferry the liquor ashore whilst
dodging the Coast Guard patrols. If caught, the boats would often be
set alight by the crew in an attempt to destroy all evidence of their
contraband. It was not unusual for gun battles to ensue between the
Coast Guard and the smugglers.

The insurance company oranje still operates today. The company was set
up in 1905 and specialises in marine insurance. It has had several
name changes throughout its history. It was originally called
'Onderlinge Belt Verzekeringsmaatschappij Oranje’ , later it changed
its name to ‘Vereniging Oranje Onderlinge Verzekering van Schepen
U.A.’.
It is now called ‘Oranje Verzekeringen’. Its website is in Dutch.
Luckily I speak Dutch and have checked through its website but that
offers no further information about the incident. The company has two
offices. Contact information is as follows:
 
Schweitzerlaan 21 
9728 NR Groningen

Postbus 340
9700 AH Groningen 

Telephone: 050 - 5262555 
Telefax: 050 - 5263132 
E-mail: oranje@oranje-verzekeringen.nl



Scheepmakerij 112 
3331 MA Zwijndrecht

Postbus 85 
3330 AB Zwijndrecht 

Telephone: 078 – 6122500
Telefax: 078 - 6122450 
E-mail: orazwy@xs4all.nl >


<Shipping incidents – an alphabetical list in name order giving
details of what happened to the Alfa.>
<http://www.merchantships.click2site.com/ShipLoss/ShipLossAlfi.html>

<The website of oranje-verzekeringen.>
<http://www.oranje-verzekeringen.nl/site/IE4_f.html>



<For more information about rum runners:>
<U.S.Coast Guard>
<Article - Rum War: The U.S Coast Guard & Prohibition by Donald L.
Canney>
<http://www.uscg.mil/hq/g-cp/history/h_rumwar.html>

<Photographs showing the rum runners.>
<http://www.uscg.mil/hq/g-cp/history/Prohibition_Photo_Index.html>

<Search terms used:>

<alfa 1924 ship>
<://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=alfa+1924&as_q=ship>

<oranje verzekering>
<://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=oranje+verzekering>

<Good luck in your searching !>

---

Request for Answer Clarification by rbee-ga on 15 Oct 2002 15:08 PDT

Hi;

Thanks for the data, however, the incident date is firm at March 10,
1926. Since the ship you indetify as the ALFA was lost in 1924 it can
not be the same vessel. Also I strongly believe that whatever rescue
incident took place would probably be somewhere near the Netherlands.
I already have the data respecting the Insurance Comp.

---

Clarification of Answer by belindalevez-ga on 27 Oct 2002 23:45 PST

<I have tried contacting the insurance company Oranje but have not had
a reply.

I found a ship called Alfa that has been sunk in a former soviet navy
harbour, but I have not been able to find out if this ship is in any
way related to the event that you describe. The original web page no
longer exists. You need to click on cached to view it. You can find it
under the link to SportsEvents Estonian Wrecks.

The name Alfa is used for several Russian ships including their
nuclear submarines.

The only event that I can find that took place on 10th March 1926
involving a ship was a fire on board the Amerika. The ship was in
Newport Harbour undergoing a re-fit.>


<Additional links.>

<SportEvents Estonian wrecks.>
<Googles cache of http://www.sportevents.ee/english/wrecks.html.>

<Shipping incidents.>
<http://www.merchantships.click2site.com/ShipLoss/ShipLossAriz.html>

<Search strategy.> 
<wrecks alfa> <http://216.239.37.100/search?q=cache:y6bemrFK7XIC:www.sportevents.ee/english/wrecks.html+wrecks+alfa&hl=en&ie=UTF-8>


<Good luck in your searching.>

I took a run at an answer for you, but had to back off. It is
difficult to get details on a particular ship or shipwreck without a
general location. Such information tends to be spread across many
databases around the world, organized by areas like South Florida or
the English coastal waters. Also, there quite a few ships named Alpha
- 44 just in the Nova Scotia Museum Ship Information Database alone:
http://daryl.chin.gc.ca:8000/basisbwdocs/sid/title1e.html

There is certainly more general information out there, but most of
that sort of stuff seems to be "pay-to-play".

Here supposedly is the largest shipwreck database in the world:
http://users.accesscomm.ca/shipwreck/

Here's a site claiming 100,000 North American shipwrecks: 
http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/%7Enmr/Profile.html

Best of luck. Sorry I couldn't nail it down for you, but maybe some of
the information above will help you or another Google researcher.

ericynot-ga

Thanks for confirmation of the date. I'll try some Dutch resources.