Birdoswald - a general history

Owners: 1892 Lunn & J McCoy, Newcastle-on-Tyne: 1899 Glan S.S. Co (J Matthais & Sons) Aberystwyth-renamed Glanystwyth: 1902 restyled J Mathias & Sons, Aberystwyth

Masters: 1893 J Newton: 1895-99 JF Pears: 1904 John O Enosborn (1868 Borth, Wales)

Voyages:  Lunn & MacCoy were tramp ship owners formed in 1892 who traded all over the world and Birdoswald was their first ship. They owned up to six steamers at a time and at the beginning of the Great War owned 3. 2 of these were torpedoed and the third was trapped in ice at Archangel. None of these were replaced and the company ceased trading. As the Birdoswald she was reported to have been on a strange voyage from Blyth to India in 1896 which lasted from 30 Jan to 6 Dec and during it she rounded the southern tip of the subcontinent six times before heading for Dundee from Chittagong, possibly with a load of jute: from Galveston for Liverpool with a general cargo, including wheat & cotton, & a crew of 24 during a Force 10 westerly gale in the North Atlantic on 13 December 1893 the Birdoswold had her lifeboat damaged & her port side light carried away. One life was lost.

On a voyage from Cardiff to Port Said with a cargo of coal Glanystwyth was totally wrecked during fog on Fratelli Rocks near Bizerta on 11 April 1904. The salvage steamer Berger Wilhelm was sent from Messina but refused to do the salvage. The master was found to be in default & his certificate was suspended for six months. No lives lost.

Crew December 1893:

Owen, David, chief officer, Wales.

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