geraint Posted 23 March Share Posted 23 March I have a photo dated 1913 of the SS Pennant loading slate at the Penrhyn Docks at Bangor "bound for Germany" according to the photo. The Penrhyn Quarries in Bethesda railroaded the slate to Bangor Docks and the SS Pennant would have done this run innumerably before and after that date. The ship, docks and quarries would have been owned by the Pennant-Douglas family of Penrhyn Castle, Llandegai. Is there a source to find out what happened to the SS Pennant during the war? The German trade came to an end but slate was exported world-wide. Could she have been sunk by U-boats? How does one find out? Thanks for any help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
horatio2 Posted 23 March Share Posted 23 March Clyde-built? - https://www.clydeships.co.uk/view.php?ref=20595 and https://1915crewlists.rmg.co.uk/document?vessel_search[vesselName]=pennant&vessel_search[officialNumber]=&vessel_search[submit]= Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KizmeRD Posted 23 March Share Posted 23 March The ship was owned by Edward Sholto Douglas-Pennant, 3rd Baron Penrhyn, a British Conservative politician whose family owned the Penrhyn slate quarry. MB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreyC Posted 23 March Share Posted 23 March (edited) Registered in the Lloyd´s Register of 1917 as 648 gross ts, 180ft long. GreyC Edited 23 March by GreyC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KizmeRD Posted 23 March Share Posted 23 March Yes, the ship survived the war, but sunk due to a collision incident in 1925, subsequently re-floated and scrapped. MB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geraint Posted 23 March Author Share Posted 23 March (edited) Thanks to you all. I'm very much appreciative of your knowledge and preparedness to share with me. I'm humbled! Geraint PS giving her a bit more thought! She would have been taken off her normal German/Baltic Sea routes - was she then involved in any way, in the naval/merchant war effort? Edited 23 March by geraint Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
horatio2 Posted 23 March Share Posted 23 March (edited) The NMM documents (1915) note PENNANT being employed "in the Coasting Trade". Edited 23 March by horatio2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geraint Posted 23 March Author Share Posted 23 March Welsh/British coast then? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
horatio2 Posted 23 March Share Posted 23 March Presumably so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerchantOldSalt Posted 23 March Share Posted 23 March 2 hours ago, geraint said: Welsh/British coast then? The ENG 6 or Crew Agreement found by Horatio2 shows that the it is for a vessel engaged in the HOME TRADE the limits for which were the Elbe River in Germany to Brest, France, including all the UK. During WW1 this would obviously limit the PENNANT to trading to continental ports between say Dunkerque and Brest. However if you look at where the crew were signing on and off the crew agreement it would appear that in 1915, at least, she was on a fairly regular run between Belfast and Manchester with the occasional call into Liverpool. She does not appear in the Merchant Vessel Service list of ships taken up from trade for use by the Admiralty or War Office so likely she was employed in normal commercial runs only. Tony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geraint Posted 23 March Author Share Posted 23 March Again thanks for the info both. Appreciated greatly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KizmeRD Posted 24 March Share Posted 24 March The zenith of the Welsh slate export trade was reached in 1889 with a record exportation of 79,900 tons. 78% of all exported slate was sent to Germany, 10% to Australia, 5% to Denmark, with the remaining 7% going to various other countries. These figures illustrate the importance of the German market, which obviously collapsed with the outbreak of the war. MB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreyC Posted 24 March Share Posted 24 March (edited) 1 hour ago, KizmeRD said: he zenith of the Welsh slate export trade was reached in 1889 with a record exportation of 79,900 tons. 78% of all exported slate was sent to Germany Very interesting. Learned something new (again). GreyC Edited 24 March by GreyC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KizmeRD Posted 24 March Share Posted 24 March The pattern of exporting shifts a little from the 1889 figures as we move nearer to 1914, with the percentage of exports to Germany tailing-off a bit (although still significant). There were three main reasons for this (1) poor labour relations/prolonged strike action at the Penrhyn quarry (2) imposition of import levy on welsh slate into Germany (3) manufacture of synthesised slate. The principal German port for slate importation was Hamburg. MB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geraint Posted 25 March Author Share Posted 25 March Thanks MB. My family were involved in the Pwllheli coastal trade of importing wood from the Baltic, and exporting slaked lime from the local limekilns to Baltic ports. Apparently my g g grandad was buried at Stettin and his son took out a Pwllheli granite gravestone on a subsequent trip. There was also stories of sailing to Valparaiso, south America for gueanna. All this would have been pre-war as my g grandad became a ship's chandler and seafearing came to an end in our family at about the era of the War. It would be interesting to know how the German / Baltic coastal trade fared during the interwars period. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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