A MEMENTO of a maritime disaster, in which 24 men from the region died, has been given pride of place in a museum.

The Samtampa, travelling to Newport, South Wales, from Middlesbrough, was destroyed after it was caught in a gale on April 23, 1947.

Ten victims were from Middlesbrough, four were from Whitby, two each from Stockton, Redcar and Staithes and one each from South Bank, Skelton, Bishop Auckland and Hartlepool.

The tragedy was compounded when eight lifeboatmen also died.

Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council has displayed three chain links from the ship in Kirkleatham Museum's maritime collection, alongside a hatch cover, which was also salvaged as tragic mementos from the Samtampa.

The links were blessed by Teesport chaplain Colin Worswick at a ten-minute ceremony yesterday in the Sir James Knott lifeboat boathouse, at Kirk-leatham Museum.

The Dormanstown and Redcar branch of the Merchant Navy Association, whose members attended the memorial, was given the links, and handed the links to the museum.

The Samtampa was a wartime ship built in the US. The night it sank, the ship's master, Neale Sherwell, found his vessel fighting its way through the teeth of a 70mph gale. Unable to proceed, he took the decision to drop anchor in the Bristol Channel to ride out the storm.

But the cables were unable to hold the 7,000-tonne vessel, leaving her at the mercy of the hurricane-force winds.

She was blown onto Sker Rocks, near Porthcawl, and broke apart in only 80 minutes. Witnesses described the sea as a "seething cauldron of fury".

The ship's lighter bow and stern sections were thrown clear of the water and ended up on a rock 25ft above the beach. The mid-section was left to the mercy of the jagged rocks. Her entire crew of 39 perished.

As the Samtampa's crew battled in vain to save themselves, a lifeboat was launched from Mumbles, near Swansea, to help.

As it approached the ship, a huge wave capsized the rescuers.

Still beneath the waves, she was also driven into the rocks and was later found wedged tight. All eight of her crew died.

Museum curator Alan Pearce said: "We are delighted to receive the links, which obviously have a great emotional bearing to the people of South Wales and of Teesside, and are a significant part of our maritime collection."

The council's cabinet member for culture, leisure and tourism, Councillor Sheelagh Clarke said: "Although we are commemorating a very sad event in our local history, these items will be treasured by the museum and be of great interest to a lot of people in our area."

The Samtampa disaster was commemorated on its 60th anniversary earlier this year.

A stained glass window in a church at Mumbles is a reminder of the tragedy.