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
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