Abana

Abana may refer to:

Abana (barque)

The Abana was a sailing barque wrecked at Blackpool in England on 22 December 1894.

History

Abana was built at Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada in 1874. She was originally homeported at Saint John, New Brunswick. By 1894, she was flying the Norwegian flag.

Loss

The Abana was sailing from Liverpool to Savannah, Georgia when she was caught in a storm in the Irish Sea. She was spotted at 3 pm drifting in a northwesterly direction with her sails torn to shreds. The crew mistook Blackpool Tower for a lighthouse and the ship was first spotted floundering at North Pier, and ended up drifting north and was wrecked off Little Bispham at 5 pm. Flares were fired and the lifeboat was called out. The alarm was raised by the landlord of the Cleveleys Hotel. Due to the weather conditions, the Blackpool lifeboat Samuel Fletcher had to be taken some 7 miles (11 km) overland to Bispham before it could be launched. The lifeboat had a crew of 16, and the Abana had a crew of 17, all of whom were taken on board along with the ship's dog, which belonged to Captain Danielson. The lifeboat grounded on a sandbank whilst returning to shore, but some of the crew members pushed the boat afloat and they managed to reach shore safely. All were taken to the Red Lion Inn to recover from their ordeal. The ship's bell and dog were given to the landlord of the Cleveleys Hotel, who had raised the alarm.

Barada

The Barada (Arabic: بردى‎ / ALA-LC: Baradá; Greek: Chrysorrhoas) is the main river of Damascus, the capital city of Syria.

Topography and source

Throughout the arid plateau region east of Damascus, oases, streams, and a few minor rivers that empty into swamps and small lakes provide water for local irrigation. Most important of these is the Barada, a river that rises in the Anti-Lebanon Mountains and disappears into the desert. The Barada flows out of the karst spring of Ain al-Fijah, about 27 kilometres (17 mi) north west of Damascus in the Anti-Lebanon Mountains, but its true source is Lake Barada, a small lake that is also a karst spring located about 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) from Zabadani. The Barada descends through a steep, narrow gorge named "Rabwe" before it arrives at Damascus, where it divides into seven branches that irrigate the Al Ghutah (الغوطة) oasis, the location of Damascus. Eventually the Ghouta reached a size of 370 square kilometers, although in the 1980s, urban growth started replacing agricultural use with housing and industry. The river has also suffered from severe drought in the last decades, mainly due to the lower rainfall rates and the large increase in the population in the region. It also suffers from serious pollution problems, especially in the summer, where there is almost no flow and little water in the basin.