THOMAS CONOLLY

THOMAS CONNOLLY LO285 / M270

Official No: 143861 Port Number and Year: 629th in London, 1919 (LO285)
2nd in Milford, 1938

Description: Castle Class steel side trawler; steam screw, coal burning. Ketch rigged: mizzen sail

Crew: 11 men (1924)

Registered in Milford: 23 May 1938

Built: 1918 by Cook, Welton & Gemmell, Beverely, for the Admiralty. (Yard no. 384)

Tonnage: 290.28 grt 119.39 net.

Length / breadth / depth (feet): 125.5 / 23.5 / 12.7

Engine: T 3-Cyl. 60.7 nhp.10 kts. Engine and boiler by Amos & Smith, Albert Docks, Hull.

Owners:

As LO285.

31 Jan 1920: The Admiralty, London.

Manager: The Secretary of the Admiralty, Whitehall, London SW1.

6 May 1927: Brand & Curzon, Docks, Milford.

Managers: Edward Brand and Charles Curzon.

As M270

23 May 1938: Milford Fisheries Ltd., Docks, Milford.

Manager: Owen Willie Limbrick, Pill Lane, Milford.

Landed at Milford: 18 Nov 1919; 26 Jan 1920 - 30 Nov 1939

Skippers: A.J. Beckett 1930-36

Notes:
Thomas Connolly, age 34, born in Galway, Ireland; O.S., HMS VICTORY, Trafalgar.
10 Apr 1918: Completed for Admiralty as a minesweeper (Admy.no. 3589). 1x12 pdr. Crew: 15, up to 18 with wireless.
1919: Converted for mercantile.
1920: Milford landings are recorded from 26th January 1920, but the London Register 1924-28 and MN Lists 1920-27 record her Milford owners in 1927 as above. (However, A.G. Horden has been a possible owner in 1923, with Brand & Curzon as managers.)
Dec 1939: Requisitioned by the Admiralty and converted to a boom defence vessel (Z.141), based at Sheerness.
17 Dec 1940: Mined in Thames Estuary off Sheerness; one casualty. (Stoker Ralph R. Richardson, age 20.)

Cert. Cancelled & Milford Registry Closed: 10 Feb 1941.

Accidents and Incidents

From the West Wales Guardian of Friday 21st January 1938:

Milford trawler fishermen have good cause to remember the hurricane, for most of them were in the thick of it, and boats docking on Sunday and Monday bore many signs of their battering - lifeboats were missing and damaged, gear smashed. Skippers spoke of waves mountains high. ..................

In the Dock, too, the Brand and Curzon trawler "Thomas Connolly" was blown from her moorings and ended up under Hakin Bridge, with her foremast damaged. She was refloated on the afternoon tide on Saturday.