Part of the Acorn Archive

Hearts of Oak

 

 

 

Athel Line Ships

 

Athelking

3 ships of this name

 

1  ATHELKING

ON 147359 

GSN  20007789

Built 1926 Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson, Newcastle

For Athel Line

Registered Liverpool

9557 grt 

474ft 9ins x 64ft 4ins x 36ft 5ins

709nhp; Oil engines.

Twin screw; 10.5 knots

1925  The Times 31st December : Motor Ship launched at Wallsend.

Sir S.G. Hunter on state of trade. Messrs Swan Hunter and Wigham Richardson Ltd., Wallsend, yesterday launched the motor ship Athelking, to carry 13,000 tons of molasses, the largest in the fleet of the British Molasses Co Ltd.,

Sir George Hunter, proposing a toast to the vessel, referred to the contined depression in shipbuilding, and said that of the nine shipyards belonging to his firm, four were closed and others only partially employed. With the launch of the Athelking, it was the first and only time since they started business in 1872, that they were without a ship in the stocks, in their two large Wallsend yards. If ship owners could find employment for new ships - now was the time to order, because ship builders were tendering without profit, costs and wages were low and the men were eager for work. Mr F.K. Kielberg, chairman of the British Molasses Company, said that he felt prosperity would come. It had been a long, uphill struggle for shipbuilders, but with a trade revival more tonnage would be required. A few years ago his company was content to use old ships but, having tested new vessels, we are impatient for them. They must have new tonnage to face the competition of other nations.

1940  9th September : Sunk on voyage Table Bay to Sourabaya, in ballast.
Shelled by German Raider ATLANTIS; 21.48S 67.40E

The ATHELKING was headed towards Indonesia; confronted by the raider ATLANTIS, she returned fire, but was hit badly. The engine room was flooding. The order to abandon ship was given. The bridge and aft were on fire. Captain Tomkins was killed on the bridge. Some crew members managed to take to the lifeboats, but all were captured. Weeks later, the prisoners were transferred to the DURMITOR, a captured cargo ship, and they were taken to Somaliland. But the DURMITOR went aground near the coast. The prisoners were taken by Italian soldiers, as they reached the beach, and were taken on to the Italian POW camp in Mogadishu and later to a camp at Merca. They were liberated March 1941, by South East African forces and taken to Mombasa on the cruiser HMS CERES.

Four men died.

 

The men who Died 9th September 1940

DAVIES, Carpenter, ROBERT JOHN, Age 29.

Son of William and Maggie Davies;

Nephew of Jane Davies, of Nevin, Caernarvonshire.

 

REECE-HEAL, Apprentice, ROBERT LEONARD CARLTON, Age 17.

Son of Mrs. M. Reece-Heal, of Kingsdown, Kent.

 

TOMKINS, Master, ALBERT ERNEST, Age 41.

Husband of D. A. Tomkins, of Wallasey, Cheshire.

 

Died 24th December 1940.

FERRETT, Able Seaman, ARTHUR HARRY LUNDSTROM, Age 18.

Buried Nairobi War Cemetery.

 

Athelking (1)

 

Bibliothek fur Zeitgeschichte, Stuttgart
Collection Raul Maya (Montevideo)

http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/bfz/marine/index.htm

 

2 ATHELKING  

ON 183757 

GSN 20007790 

Built 1950 Hawthorn, Leslie & Co, Newcastle

11,183 grt

522ft 7ins x 67ft 3ins

Twin screw

1962 scrapped Valencia.
 

 

Athelking (2)

 

Athelking(2)

 

3 ATHELKING

Built 1964 by Uddevallavarvet-Uddevalla

Yard Nr 212

for Athel Line Ltd.

1977  HASSAN B Hadjihassan Shipping Corp. SA-Panama

1985  4th July  Arrived at Kaohsiung, Taiwan, for demolition.

 

Athelking (3)

 

Photograph by Joe McMillan

 

 

Raymond Forward