Part of the
Acorn Archive
Hearts of Oak
CRETEHILL and
CRETABODE
The Concrete
Barges at each end of Cornwall.
Looking over the
roofs on to Newlyn Harbour, 1936.
The buildings
erected on the “hulk” can be seen;
a crane was
set on the stern of the CRETEHILL.
At
Newlyn, near Penzance
CRETEHILL
ON
143031
Ordered
as PD 19
Ferroconcrete dumb barge.
Launched 27th November 1918
Yard
No 3
By
Scottish Concrete Ship Co., Ltd. Greenock
Completed 8th May 1919 as CRETEHILL
For The Shipping Controller, London, U.K
704
grt
178ft x 31ft x 19ft
Port of Registry : London.
1921 Transferred to Board of Trade , London, Pof R London .
1922
Crete Shipping Co., Ltd., ( Stelp & Leighton Ltd ., managers) London.
1925 Hulked.
1928 Sherwood Hunter Ltd., Newlyn.
Used
by J H Bennetts, coal merchants, to supply steam trawlers, mostly from
Lowestoft.
1940/2
Bombed by Luftwaffe; claimed as a cruiser having been sunk.
During the period 1940-1942,
867 bombs were dropped on the Penzance area,
with 16 people killed, 115 people injured,
48 buildings destroyed,
157 buildings seriously damaged
and 3,752 buildings damaged.
One
of these raids included the attack on Newlyn harbour. The CRETEHILL had a large
hole in her side, local children used to row their small boats in through the
hole. She was known locally, simply as “the hulk”.
1949 15th March, declared “surplus to
requirements”. The hull was filled with flotation bags and CRETEHILL
was towed out and sunk off Newlyn harbour. The anchor is still in the
harbour off the end of the William and Mary Pier.
Cretehill, 1939
Raymond
Forward