Sinking a ship to extinguish a fire

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On our recent visit to the Garden Island Naval Base in Western Australia, we had morning tea in Kwinana on Kwinana Beach. ‘Kwinana’ means ‘young woman’ or ‘pretty maid’. The beach and city are named after the SSS Kwinana. SSS stands for State Shipping Service of Western Australia. Built as a cargo ship in Sunderland, County Durham in 1892, she was first named Darius. In 1912, she changed hands, was refitted as a cargo and passenger ship, and renamed. She had an eventful life from that time on. 1914: there was a fire in her No 2 hold and she later struck a rock, damaging plates in the hull. 1917: Suffered machinery damage at Broome. 1918: Her steering gear failed and she went aground. 1920: Developed a leak in a hold then, later, a leak in a boiler. 1920: Aftr battling to extinguish a fire between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, the Kwinana was deliberately flooded in about 19 feet of water before the water was later pumped out and the ship raised. The crew refused to bring her back to Fremantle. A new crew was engaged but when she reached Fremantle, she collided with another ship. She was eventually sold and the hulk towed to Careening Bay on Garden Island. In 1922, during a storm, she broke her moorings, was blown across Cockburn Sound and ran aground at what is now Kwinana Beach. To cut a long story short, the wreck has been filled with concrete but in the meantime, the town had adopted her name. The photo actually shows the boat but, being filled with concrete, there is nothing to see that looks anything like a ship.