Commentary:
Gale Casualties by Stephen Tetlow
As
November drew to a close, the coasts of Britain and those of her near neighbours
were being pounded by heavy seas which caused widespread damage, both at sea and
on shore. Lifeboats and salvage tugs were busy, but in general the ships that
were in need of assistance were of modern vintage, and give us little of a historical
nature. Perhaps
the most tragic casualty in this period of heavy weather was the sinking of the
P. and O. motor-ship Tresillian (7,373 gross tons), which foundered off the coast
of Ireland, with the loss of 24 members of her crew. She was bound from Sorel,
P.Q., for Avonmouth and Glasgow with a cargo of grain, and developed a list which
caused her to be abandoned. Two ships picked up survivors, the motor tanker Liparus,
and the Greenock motorship Ardglen, and other ships that searched for further
men included the motorship Parima, of the Royal Mail Lines, the Floristan, of
the Strick Line, and the recently completed Brocklebank steamer Maskeliya. The
Tresillian was built and engined by Wm. Doxford and Sons, Ltd., Sunderland, being
completed in December 1944 as the Registan, for the Strick Line Ltd. She was purchased
by the Hain Steamship Co., Ltd., in 1945, and after a short period of trading
for them under the name Registan they gave her the name Tresillian. In 1950 she
was transferred to the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, which
is associated with the Hain Steamship Company. A typical Doxford motorship, she
had a capacity of 10,067 tons deadweight, and a speed of 11 knots. In
February 1953 she had to put into Ferrol with engine trouble which delayed her
for several days, and the following June, while docking at Kobe, en route from
London for Yokohama, she ranged alongside a wharf causing some damage to shell
plating. Her last voyage had started at Urangan, Queensland, which she left on
August 28, and after calling at Suva in September, she proceeded to Canada, and
eventually left Sorel for the United Kingdom on November 17. Among the casualties
when the Tresillian sank 44 miles from Cork was her master, Capt. W. J. Winter,
of Troedyrhiw, Glamorgan. Sea
Breezes January 1955 |