MARGUERITA M11

Official No:  139356    Port Number and Year:  33rd in Hull, 1919 (H326)                                                                                    6th in Milford, 1929

Description: Admiralty wood drifter; steam screw, coal burning. Dandy rigged: foresail and mizzen.

Crew:  6 men (1921); 8 men (1929); 4 men* (1946).

Registered at Milford: 12 Jun 1929

Built: 1919 by Richard Dunston, Thorne.

Tonnage: 96.15 grt  31.92 net.

Length / breadth / depth (feet): 86.6 / 20 / 9.9

Engine: T 3-Cyl. 42.5 nhp. 9 kts.  Engine by Great Central Co-operative Engineering & Ship Repairing Co., Grimsby;  boiler by Hewitt & Kellett, Bradford.

Owners:   As SPATE H326 29 Dec 1921: Charles V. Hardy, 20 High St., Hull. Managing owner.   1922: Walter Hill, 48 King's Bench St., Hull. Managing owner.   By 1924: Atmosphere Steam Fishing Co. Ltd., Fish Dock Rd., Grimsby. Manager: Thomas W. Roberts. (Same address.)   As MARGUERITA M11 12 Jun 1929: Mrs. Sarah J. Hellings, 5 Hamilton Tce., Milford.  (64/64) Manager: Edward J. Hellings.   14 Nov 1939: Reginald Llewellyn Hancock, 'Beachways', Picton Rd., Hakin. Managing owner.   22 Nov 1946: Bruno Nielson, Lundings 6, Aarhus, Denmark.

Landed at Milford: 27 Apr 1929 - 24 Mar 1939; 18 Nov - 1 Dec 1946

Skippers: William Reid (1933)

Notes:  All WW1 Admiralty drifters, wood and steel, were named as natural or meteorological phenomena. 26 Jul 1919: Launched as SPATE for Admiralty service, no. 4000. 1919: Placed on disposal list; sold as SPATE.  (MNL states as Hull registered  in 1919, but the Hull Register states date of registry 29 Dec 1921.) 2 May 1929: Hull register closed. Nov 1939: Requisitioned for war service and converted for harbour service as MARGUERITA. Oct 1945: Returned to previous owners. Dec 1946: Lost with all four hands off Portland Bill, while on passage to Denmark. (*See report of inquest below.)

Cert. Cancelled & Milford Registry Closed: 22 Nov 1946.  Sold to Danish owners [but see 1946 news report below.]

 Accidents and Incidents

From the West Wales Guardian of  Friday 26th May 1933:

A sad drowning fatality was reported at the port of Milford last Friday, when the steam trawler and liner "Marguerita" arrived back.  The skipper, William Reid, reported the loss of Mr Sidney Staines.  How he met his death no one knows.  He was not a local man but sailed from the port for many years.  He was forty-nine years old, and came from the East Coast.

 

Sidney George Staines was born in 1888, in Halstead, Essex, and in 1903 he was indentured by the Guardians of the Halstead Union Workhouse to the Fishing Industry in Grimsby. His home address was 32, Cobden Street Grimsby. [Information kindly supplied by Gareth Evans, a former Grimsby trawler skipper, and grandson of Skipper William Mogg, who was lost with all hands on the Grimsby trawler LAFOREY in 1954.]

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From  the West Wales Guardian of  Friday 22nd November 1946:

 

    The Milford steam drifter / liner which has been laid up for over twelve months has been sold to Swedish buyers to still be used as a fishing vessel.  She will have a complete overhaul and refit.

    The "Marguerita", M11, will have the work done by its late owners, Peter Hancock & Son.

 

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From  the West Wales Guardian of  Friday 27th December 1946:

WARNED NOT TO MAKE JOURNEY

Trawler Crashed on Rocks

RESUMED INQUEST ON HAVERFORDWEST ENGINEER

    A verdict that William Gravell, 'Willowdale", Merlin's Bridge, Haverfordwest, an engineer, died from misadventure together with his trawler skipper and three of the vessel's crew, when the vessel, the "Marguerita", of Milford Haven, crashed on the rocks at Portland Bill, was recorded at the adjourned Portland inquest on Monday.

     The inquiry concerned also the deaths of Captain Bruno Nielson, a Dane, the skipper of the vessel, and the other engineer, Valentine Kitchner McKillop, a French Canadian. The bodies of the remaining two of the crew have not been recovered.

    Mrs Florence Jenkins, of Merlin's Bridge, Haverfordwest, who was at the previous inquest hearing, gave evidence of identification, then said Gravell was employed by a firm of ship's brokers at Haverfordwest and was taking the "Marguerita" to Denmark. He was afterwards going to fly back to Croydon.

    The South Dorset Coroner, Lieut.-Col. G. G. H. Symes, read statements taken by the police at Milford Haven and Newlyn, Cornwall, that the "Marguerita", a wooden ship of 92 tons and built in 1919, had been sold by Mr. R. L. Hancock of Milford Haven to Captain Nielson. Certificates of the vessel's seaworthiness were put in by Lloyds Surveyor at Milford.  The police reported that the crew were a happy crowd and there were no complaints from this source.

    The Coroner stated: The previous owners tell me they warned Captain Nielson not to make the voyage to Denmark owing to the weather and I have another letter from the master of a tug there who says, "I told Captain Nielson of the risk he would be running but he disregarded my advice."

    "It is clear," said the Coroner, "he should not have attempted to make the journey with a vessel of the size and build of the 'Marguerita' with one single screw".

   

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