Technical

Official Number: 132132
Yard Number: 520
Completed: 1912
Gross Tonnage: 229
Net Tonnage: 118
Length: 119.2 ft
Breadth: 22 ft
Depth: 11.5 ft
Built: Cochrane & Son Ltd, Selby
Engine: 66HP T.3-cyl and boiler by Charles D. Holmes & Co Ltd, Hull

History

22.2.1912: Launched by Cochrane & Sons, Selby (Yd.No.520) for Henry L. Taylor Ltd, Grimsby (managing owner) as HONDO.
29.4.1912: Registered at Grimsby (GY701).
5.1912: Completed.
8.1914: Requisitioned for war service as an armed trawler (1-6pdr HA) (Ad.No.16).
1919: Returned.
10.1922: Sold to Diamonds Steam Fishing Co Ltd, Grimsby (H. L. Taylor) (Henry G. Hopwood, manager).
1935: New boiler fitted (made 1934).
1940: Directed to Fleetwood under wartime control (Boston Deep Sea Fishing & Ice Co Ltd, Fleetwood, managers).
9.1941: Sold to Boston Deep Sea Fishing & Ice Co Ltd, Fleetwood.
9.3.1943: Dutch motor trawler ALIDA (SCH6) sailed Fleetwood for Irish Sea grounds.
20.3.1943: Homeward in dense fog, at 1030 am. to seaward of Morecambe Bay Light Vessel, struck ALIDA on starboard side 12ft in front of winch. Despite rigging tarpaulin ingress of water too great and connected for tow to Fleetwood. At 1.30 pm. ALIDA foundered and crew taken onboard, landing at Fleetwood at 5.45 pm. Owners admitted liability for collision.
1943: Working Icelandic grounds.
11.1943: Sold to Charleson-Smith Trawlers Ltd, Hull.
9.11.1943: Grimsby registry closed.
10.11.1943: Registered at Hull (H565). To continue fishing out of Fleetwood (Boston Deep Sea Fishing & Ice Co Ltd, Fleetwood, managing agents).
7.5.1943: Typical landing from Iceland grounds. 856 kits – hake-8, cod/codling-800, haddock-122, plaice-21, flats-27.
16.11.1943: Sailed Fleetwood for West of Scotland grounds (Sk. John Nicholson); thirteen crew.
24.11.1943: Last contact after sighting off Barra Head.
2.12.1943: Body of Sk. Nicholson recovered and buried at Castlebay, Barra.
10.12.1943: Body of Joseph Croft recovered and buried at Fleetwood.
31.12.1943: Posted missing, believed lost by stress of weather off Barra Head; 14 crew lost*. Later body of Norman Leach, Mate recovered and buried also body of Frederick Mearns, deckhand. Believed buried at Coileg, Eriskay.
1944: Hull registry closed.

* Lost – Sk. John Nicholson (43); Norman Leach (39), Mate; Norman Stirzacker, Bosun; Herbert H. Scuffell, Ch.Eng; Sidney Beswick, 2nd Eng; Frederick Mearns (38): Joseph Croft (19); William Cameron; W. Harrison; S. Olsen & J. Braunberch, deckhands; Patrick Wilson (16), deckie learner; James Hill (60), fireman; Bertie Lees (43), cook.

Joseph Croft was 19 years old and was buried at Fleetwood after his body was recovered from the Scottish coast. The mate had sailed after leaving a sick bed with a bout of flu as he hadn’t wished to let his skipper down.

Patrick Wilson, at 16 years old, was the youngest person aboard.

James Hill was a survivor of other wrecks having been sunk three times. He was the only survivor of the Fleetwood vessel OONA HALL when she was run down off the Calf of Mann by a French armed merchant cruiser.

Click to enlarge image

S.T. Hondo H565

Changelog
22/01/2009: Page published. 4 updates since then.
14/01/2021: Updated history.