Revised 10 June 2007
(two photos added separately lower down page)
TEESSHIPS
A FAVOURITE
SHIP
HEMSLEY
I
(and some of her sisters!)
ORIGINAL ITEM:
(Photo by John Clarkson)
Not a beauty, but a ship of character, with the fairly unusual feature of her bridge forward. For over 50 years in total she plied the trade for which she was built during the First World War, in service then with the Admiralty.
When I saw her she was already 48 years old.
HEMSLEY - 1, Liverpool, 14 September 1965
An interesting, old, bridge-forward, former Admiralty oiler.
HEMSLEY - 1, Hemsley Bell Ltd., London, 1178gt, completed Newcastle 11-1916, ex Scotol-48. Wrecked May 1969.
30.07.06: I have just now unearthed the companion stern view to the above:
10.06.07: Richard Chandler has sent me his view of the HEMSLEY 1 about to berth at Heysham:
(Original item) Perhaps her greatest, yet saddest, moment of fame was in her demise. She hit the headlines - well page 5 of the Daily Mail of Tuesday, 13 May 1969.
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Subsequent material:
31.03.04:
Eh, bah gum, lad, that George Robinson found the answer Found her
courtesy of Starke-Schell.
HICKOROL 1918,1176grt by A.McMillan & Son, Dumbarton (470),
sold by Admiralty 1948 as HEMSLEY II, 1950 GRAMMOS (Greek), 1956
ARDENZA (Italy), 1967 PANNESI (Italy), broken up La Spezia
7/1978.
So,
HEMSLEY II and not HEMSLEY 2 (and I think that does agree with
her photo below).
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13.3.04: Richard Summerfield contacted me after purchasing an
auction lot of ship photos. They included this nice view of the
HEMSLEY I:
However, there was also a view of a HEMSLEY 2:
Apparently of similar vintage and type (former Admiralty oiler?) to the HEMSLEY I but, so far, all efforts to trace her have failed. So, over to TEESSHIPS viewers for the solution.
John Stevenson of Edinburgh has done a bit of digging and provided the following on units of the Hemsley Bell fleet at various dates:
The
company, Hemsley Bell & Co., Havelock Chambers, Queens
Terrace, Southampton , in 1937 operated four vessels.
ATTENDANT, CRETOL, ELSANDRA,
and HEMSLEY. Blt Gebrs Pot Bolnes 1915 as LARA , Dutch flag.
916GRT. 1926 SHELL MEX 1 Anglo Saxon Petroleum , London; 1936
HEMSLEY. Hemsley Bell, Southampton; October. Converted to barge
In 1941: ATTENDANT, ALLESANDRA, PALENCIA, HEMSLEY.
In 1947: ATTENDANT, ELSANDRA, FABIA, HELMSLEY.
Managed for the MOWT: EMPIRE GUERNSEY, EMPIRE TIGNESS.
In 1951: ATTENDANT, HEMSLEY 1. (bought from Admiralty in 1948)
From my own negative collection I can say this mystery ship is not the ATTENDANT.
22.03.04: Jaap de Roode thought we would be interested in this photo of the LARA:
10.06.07: Mike Day kindly sent me this view of the ATTENDANT from his collection:
The caption indicates the view was taken August 1953 by P.A. Vickery
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