SS Tregenna

[SS Tregenna]

Tregenna was built in 1919 and formerly called WAR BULLDOG (1919).She was owned by HAIN STEAMSHIP CO LTD. When on route from PHILADELPHIA for NEWPORT carrying a cargo of 8000 tons of steel she was torpedoed and sunk by U-65. 33 crew were missing from a total crew 37.

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[TREGENNA 16 09 TODAY]

Cargo ship SS Tregenna, 5,242grt, (Hain SS Co.) sailed from
Halifax, Nova Scotia where the ship had joined the Liverpool
bound 34 ship Convoy HX-71. They departed Halifax on 5th
September 1940 with a cargo of 8000 tons of steel, loaded in
Philadelphia, bound for Newport, Monmouthshire. During the
crossing the convoy encountered a number of fog banks and by
the 16th September had entered a severe North-Westerly gale.
On the 17th September, 78 miles North-West of Rockall in
position 58' 22N 15' 42W, U-65 breaks through the escort
screen looking for a target. Through her periscope she sights
SS Tregenna who is struggling along at 8 knots in heavy seas
with her bow rising high and plunging back into the sea. As
her bow enters the next trough she is hit by a single torpedo
in her bow and does not rise again. The 413 foot ship
continues to descend beneath the waves and disappears in 40
seconds, taking 33 men with her. By some miracle four men who
had been on watch survived and were picked up by the ship
which had been astern of her.

[Administrator]

We remember: Ships of The British Merchant Navy, Captains, Crew and loved ones. Including the lesser well known, yet not forgotten.

Her name was SS: She was a lady of the waves, named Daybreak, Tregenna, Dudley Rose, City of Beneras, Crown Arun etc, whatever her title she was not designed intentionally to face enemy action. She was generally a Steamship born or rather built to serve her masters, carry safely her crew, passengers and cargo and supply a Nation.

Those who sailed upon her, leaving families and loved ones ashore, at home, behind them and often during conflict alone and forever. Many that promised to remember them, are here no more, re-united possibly as time has gone by. The ships, travelers and crews, sail on in a different world now and loved ones hopefully passage eternally with those brave men and voyagers once more.

It was a hard way to earn a crust, especially during Wartime, with so many vessels seeking safe haven. With often her journeys end, not reached and a final resting place, the Ocean bed and no known grave but the sea, for the men, women and boys or children that sailed these graceful steel ladies. “We must remember them all”. The many that survived attacks by those that would do them harm, haunted forever by the sights and sounds of ships and fellow men of the sea becoming extinct in such a horrible way and those that escaped the hunters time and time again, with no thought of giving in will always remember “These men that died to save us all”.

We, as an island race, are steeped in Maritime history and owe so much to so many, the Merchant Navy have until recently seemed to be the forgotten service, the backbone of our country’s Navy, yet a distant relative when the honours are bestowed. These good men worked for a living, for bread and butter and maybe a love of the sea, others just to work, as times were hard. Whatever reason seamen sail, they expect at some time to go home. Faced with the hardships of life at sea, many would be deterred from such a life. To sail knowing that any voyage could be the last, facing war time dangers and a watery grave, did not deter these brave men and our Maritime life line was kept open by these sailors from many homes and ports.

Many sail what can be a “Cruel Sea”, not always in times of conflict, we ask that our God will “Bless this Ship and all who Sail In Her” at a launch and many pray for a safe voyage and early return for vessels leaving harbour. All ships and crew from liners to fishing vessels, rowing boat to super tanker, require safe passage, a flag to fly under and protection from danger. Safe harbour to rest in and when tragedy occurs a lifeboat to help them. We pray for the safety, support those that may rescue and ask our god to guide and protect. But we must also remember, LEST WE FORGET.

In Memory of :

Those Good Men and the women and children, still not Home From The Sea and those of all lost from this world with “No Known Grave but the Sea”. We shall Remember The

[Administrator]

VIA: John Anzevino.



A familiar postcard of the Steamship 'Walkure', capsized at Barry Dock in 1908 and only saved from complete submersion by the S.S. 'Trevessa' which was moored alongside, a ship that it's self later sank in the Pacific Ocean and set Cpt. Cecil Foster and his crew on their epic 1,700 mile journey.

Perhaps less known, the German S.S. 'Walkure' was captured at the beginning of WW1 by the allied French Gunboat 'Zelee' and taken to Papeete Port, Tahiti as a prize of war. Whilst at anchor the port was attacked by German heavy cruisers SMS 'Schnarhorst' & SMS 'Gneisenau'. The Walkure and Zelee came under heavy shell fire and although they suffered damage the crew were still able scuttle both ships to avoid falling into German hands. The wreck of the gunboat Zelee still sits in 30 metres of water to this day, but in 1916 the SS 'Walkure' was bought for $29,000, re-floated, repaired, sold for $825,000, renamed the S.S. Republic. Sold again and renamed S.S. Normanna the ship was unfortunate to catch fire and beached at Tenerife in 1925, and thereafter scrapped. The SMS Schnarhorst & SMS Gneisenau were sunk 3 months after their attack on Papeete Port at the Battle of the Falkland Islands.

[Administrator]

VIA Facebook.




Barry Past and Present
Nino Spiteri.

It is 100 years this year that this man Captain Cecil foster who lived in Barry and buried at Merthyr Dyfan cemetery made history having sunk in the Indian Ocean on the Ship SS Trevessa which he was Captain and 32 of 44 crew survived for 23 days on condensed milk and biscuits until they reached land . The first I ever herd of him was in 1996 when there was a write up in the South Wales Echo about the ships log coming up for Auction in the ships festival in Bristol expected to fetch £200 / £400 so i thought i would go along and buy it anyhow get to the auction i bid , bid & bid up to £2500 and dropped out loosing to a busines man in Mauritius a year later i get a phone call from a company was dealing with saying that whilst they were on holiday in St Ives in Cornwall they called at the maritime museum and they was a write up about bidding war between me and the person from Mauritius for the ships log anyhow in 2018 i take my mother to Cornwall to view a Bronze statue of our relative Michael Angove who was hung drawn and quartered by king henry lv and his head displayed on Black friars Bridge . Anyhow i call to the museum and there it is the write up they as me to sign it my 2 min of fame which made me more interested in researching Cecil Foster and a load of coincidences kept on happening winding the clock back to 1982 my parents had a cafe on Barry road and eldely couple in there 70's from Caerphilly staring calling regular to the cafe and got talking to my parents and told them that they had a property at east veiw terrace Barry they wanted to swop it for my parents bungalow it never materialised years later i found out that old couple (the lady) was cecil fosters neice and the house belonged to mr mrs foster minnie his wife died in 1982 aged 98 and Captain Cecil Foster was born in Valletta Malta .Where my family were born such a small world.

[Administrator]

Note: the is a bit of a mystery about the Trevessa in so far as the website Tyne Built Ships says she was built by Redheads in 1899 and was sold by Hains in 1920 and renamed Miramar, wrecked in a storm in Valpariso in 1926. The Shipwrecks of Mauritius Blog has Trevessa as a Turm Hansa class cargo vessel built in Flensburg in 1909, though it does record the correct date for the wreck and the correct captain and owner. Wrecksite.eu agrees with the Flensburg construction and adds that Trevessa had been originally named SS Imkenturm and was ceded to Britain after WW1 when she was acquired by Hains. It seems likely that the original Trevessa was sold and replaced by the Imkenturm which was renamed Trevessa and thus became a rarity in the Hain fleet in that she was not built by Redheads.

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