SEA HAWK M138

Official No:    108428  Port Number and Year:  1st in Milford, 1898                                                                                 4th in Swansea, 1900 (SA1)                                                                                    -  in Granton, 1906 (GN37)                                                                                    -  in Grimsby, 1918 (GY1073)

Description:  Steel side / beam trawler; steam screw; coal burner. Ketch rigged: foresail, mainsail, mizzen.

Crew: 8 men 1 boy (1898); 9 men (1917).

Registered at Milford: 22 Jan 1898

Built: J. Duthie, Sons & Co., Aberdeen, 1898.  (Yard no. 192)

Tonnage: 169 grt 44 net (1898); 64 net (1914)

Length / breadth / depth (feet):  108.4 / 20.8 / 11.1

Engine: C-2Cyl 52hp., by Hall Russell & Co., Aberdeen. (1919: New boiler fitted.)

Owners:   22 Jan 1898:  Thomas Ridley Oswald, Castle Hall, Castle Pill. Managing owner.   As SA1 23 Mar 1900: Swansea Steam Trawling Pure Ice & Cold Storage Co., Cambrian Chambers, Swansea. Manager: Thomas R. Oswald, Castle Hall, Castle Pill, Milford.   10 Feb 1906: Percy Molyneaux, Swansea. 21 Feb 1906: Swansea Fishing & Ice Co., Swansea.   As GN37 19 Dec 1906: Samuel J.  Drennan, 24 Montrose Tce., Edinburgh.                                                        23 Starbank Rd., Trinity, Leith. (1914) Managing owner.   As GY1073 26 Jun 1917:  William Ellis, Fish Docks, Grimsby. Managing owner.   3 Sep 1918: James Coombes, Fish Dock Rd., Grimsby. Managing owner.   22 Sep 1925: Boston Deep Sea Fishing & Ice Co., Grimsby.  Manager: Fred Parkes, 'Wellvale', Warbreck Hill Rd., Blackpool.   2 Apr 1928: Ernest A. Sheldon, 37 Knighton Rd., Plymouth. Managing owner.   12 Oct 1932: John Chant, 'Seven', Radford Park Rd., Plymstock, Devon. Managing owner.   16 Mar 1936: Plymouth Trawlers, The Barbican, Plymouth Manager: John Chant, 'Seven', Radford Park Rd., Plymstock, Devon.

Landed at Milford: 7 Feb 1898 - 11 Jun 1902

Skippers: James Kilby cert 1427, age 35, born Hull; signed on 26 Jan 1898 Richard Russell 2857, 32, Bradford; 7 Jul 1898 William Thomas 1234, 38, Hull; 12 Aug 1898; 6 Jan 1899 Robert Hastings 5529, 32, London; 13 Feb 1899 James S. Gray 996, 45, Woodbridge; 1 May 1899 R. Cladingbone 4386, 30, Ramsgate; residing 58 Robert St., Milford; 4 Jul 1899 Peter Ebbesen 0169874, 45, Horsen, Norway; 4 Aug 1899 Henry Dodd 5287, 38, Grimsby; 15 Sep 1899.

Notes: 30 Aug 1909: When hauling 50 miles E of May Island, mainmast collapsed when lifting bag of fish. Returned to Granton. 29 May 1917: Requisitioned as Fishery Reserve Vessel. 1919: Returned to owners.  ( New Boiler Fitted)

Cert. Cancelled & Milford Registry Closed: 23 Mar 1900.  Vessel transferred to the port of Swansea. 14 May 1937:  Grimsby registry closed “Vessel sold to foreigners (Dutch subjects) for breaking up”. [ Acknowledgements to Gil Mayes, Bill Blow and Andy Hall.]

 Accidents and Incidents:

From The Cambrian of Friday 8th September 1899:

 THE SWANSEA STEAM TRAWLING, PURE ICE & COLD STORAGE COMPANY.

AN IMPORTANT NEW INDUSTRY.

AN OPPORTUNITY FOR INVESTORS.

……..

            The share capital of the Swansea Company will be £35,000, divided into 35,000 shares of £1 each. The directors are gentlemen well known throughout South Wales and the North of England; they have had valuable experience in this particular trade, and may be relied upon to do what is best. The managing director will be Mr. P. Molyneux, of Swansea and Milford Haven; chairman, Mr. T. C. Eley, High-street, Swansea, (director of the Swansea Hide and Skin Co., Ltd., and president of the Swansea Butchers' and Cattle Dealers' Association), and the other directors are Mr. Edward Harris, Swansea, Morriston and Port Talbot, and Mr. T. R. Oswald, Castle Hall, Milford Haven, steam trawler owner. We understand that Mr. Oswald will join the board after allotment. The Company have arranged to acquire from Mr. Oswald the "Sea Mew", "Sea Lark," and "Sea Hawk," which are well-equipped modern steam trawlers of the largest type, specially constructed of steel, and of the highest class at Lloyd's.

 

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From The South Wales Daily Post of Monday 26th March 1900:

    The steam trawler "Sea Hawk," belonging to the Swansea Steam Trawling, Pure Ice and Cold Storage Co., Ltd., arrived at Milford on Friday morning, after her first trip to the Bay of Biscay for the present season. She had been away seven days, but encountered such tempestuous weather that she had practically only two days' fishing, nevertheless her catch realized the sum of £121. Had she been able to land the fish at Swansea she could have reached here on the same tide as she caught at Milford, while in all probability a saving on the cost of her bunker coal to the amount about £7 could have been effected. We understand that the returns of the other trips of the company's boats have been very satisfactory, and that the directors will shortly be able to declare an interim dividend.

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From the Cardiff Times of Saturday 29th December 1900:

CARDIFF-LADEN BARQUE DISABLED.

    The Italian barque Sant Erasmo, 4,000 tons, from Cardiff to Genoa, with coal, was picked up in a disabled condition off St. Anne's Head and brought into Milford Haven on Saturday by the steam trawler Sea Hawk, Captain G. Nicholls. of the Swansea Steam Trawling Company. The Sant Erasmo left Cardiff during the early part of the week, and encountered the gale which carried away most of her mails and did other damage. Some of the crew were disabled by accidents received during the gale. The Sant Erasmo was drifting helplessly before wind and tide flying a flag of distress when sighted by Capt. Nicholls.

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From The Pembrokeshire Herald and General Advertiser of Friday 26th April 1901:

MILFORD HAVEN

TRAWLER IN COLLISION.—Sea Hawk, steam trawler, returned to Swansea slightly damaged through collision with Norwegian barque from Cardiff. The latter proceeded in tow. The trawler has since repaired damage and has proceeded to the fishing grounds.

 

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From the Western Mail of Tuesday 10th December 1901:

 

    The 'Seahawk' put back into Swansea, having lost her boat and some gear, in heavy seas off Lundy.

 

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From The Pembrokeshire Herald and General Advertiser of Friday 26th June 1903:

 

TENBY.

ACCIDENT ON A STEAM TRAWLER.— David Logan, of Tenby, third hand on the steam trawler Sea Hawk, has been received into Swansea Hospital suffering from a fracture of the shoulder and injuries to the head sustained by a fall caused by the shipping of a heavy sea. 

 

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From The Cambrian of Friday 19th January 1906:

SWANSEA SKIPPER FINED.

    At Fishguard, on Tuesday, William Ellis, skipper of the steam trawler Sea Hawk, of Swansea, was fined £20 and £6 2. 6d. for fishing with a trawl net within the Milford Haven sea fisheries district, about a mile off Newport Head, Pembrokeshire, on the 6th of July last.

 

From The Cambrian of Friday 25th May 1906:

SWANSEA STEAM TRAWLERS FINED.

ILLEGAL FISHING OFF THE COAST OF KERRY.

CROWN PROSECUTOR'S COMMENTS ON THE CASE.

    Midleton, Co. Cork, Thursday.— William Possel, skipper of the steam trawler Sea Hawk, of Swansea, and Thomas Wales, owner and skipper of the steam trawler Triton, also of Swansea, were prosecuted yesterday at Tralee, for having illegally fished from steam trawlers within the prescribed limits off the coast of Kerry, and during prohibited hours, on April 14th. The prosecutions were at the instance of the Irish Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction.

    Mr. Morphy, Crown solicitor, said the prosecutions were brought for infringement of a bye-law prohibiting trawling between sunset and sunrise during April, May, and June, within a certain limit off Kerry. Defendants were found otter trawling inside an imaginary straight line drawn from the Great Skellig Rock to the Bull Rock.

    Capt. Brady, of the Government steamer Granuaile, bore down on the Sea Hawk and Triton, and boarded the latter. They were inside the prescribed limit, but Capt. Wales said he was not aware of being inside the line, but subsequently admitted that he was. Mr. Sherlock, of the Granuaile, said he boarded the Sea Hawk. Capt. Possel said Mr. Sherlock, of the Granuaile, said he boarded the Sea Hawk. Capt. Possel said he did not know he was inside the limit.

    Mr. Morphy pressed for a heavy penalty to teach skippers of steam trawlers from Wales to keep away from robbing poor Irish fishermen. The expense incurred in bringing these prosecutions was £21 9s. 8d.

    Capt. Possel said he had never seen the bye-law. It was never sent to Swansea. Capt. Wales said, as owner of a steam trawler, he got copies of bye-laws from time to time, but had not got a copy of the one in question. The Bench fined each defendant £10, with with £10 16s. 4d. costs in each case.

 

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From The Cambrian of Friday 9th November 1906:

SWANSEA BOAT FOR SCOTLAND.

    One of the first of the Swansea trawlers to establish the fish-landing industry at Swansea, the Sea Hawk, and which has been lying at the old fish wharf in the New Cut, has been disposed to a firm at Granton, and the new crew arrived on Friday.

 

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From The Cambrian of Friday 8th February 1907:

 SWANSEA TRAWLERS STILL BEING SOLD.

            The trawler Sea Hawk, 169 tons gross, built of steel at Aberdeen in 1898 by Messrs. J. Duthie, Sons and Co., compound engines, length 108ft 4in, and owned by the Swansea Fishing and Ice Co., Ltd.,  has been sold to Mr. S. J. Drennan, Edinburgh.

 

   

     

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