Additional information courtesy of Michael Lowery

Technical

Official Number: 108526
Yard Number: 544
Completed: 1897
Gross Tonnage: 242
Net Tonnage: 76
Length: 133.7 ft
Breadth: 21.6 ft
Depth: 10.8 ft
Engine: 570ihp T.3-cyl and boiler by N.E. Marine Engineering Co Ltd, Sunderland
Built: Edwards Bros, Howden-on-Tyne

History

4.5.1897: Launched by Edwards Bros, Howden-on-Tyne (Yd.No.544) for Kelsall Bros & Beeching Ltd (64/64), Manchester as SWIFT.
9.6.1897: Registered at Fleetwood (FD170).
6.1897: Completed. Employed as a fish carrier for the company’s boxing fleet.
1899: Transferred to Hull.
8.4.1899: Registered at Hull (H99).
12.5.1899: Fleetwood registry closed.
13.5.1899: Suffered damage to shell plating following collision off Cromer with steamer HISPANIA, Grangemouth for Dieppe, cargo pitch. HISPANIA put into Gt Yarmouth with port bow stove in.
2.3.1907: Arrived Hull with survivors and Norwegian schooner PRESTO in tow. PRESTO had sailed Brevig for West Hartlepool cargo ice a month ago, and experienced blizzards and icing. Crew in very poor shape due to hunger, fatigue and frostbite and unable to work the ship with one man washed overboard and too ill to aid him.
3.3.1907: Men recovering in hospital.
8.9.1911: Registered office transferred to Hull (George Beeching, Hull & John E. A. Kelsall, London, managers).
1914: New boiler fitted.
10.1914: Requisitioned for war service as a minesweeper (1-12pdr) (Ad.No.675).
27.1.1915: Registered at Hull as QUICKLY (H99) (BoT Minute M842/1915 dated 19.1.1915).
7.1915: Fitted out as a Special Service decoy trawler (2-12pdrs, 1-6pdr HA). Based Granton.
20.7.1915: With Special Service decoy trawler GUNNER (Ad.No.1153) engaged U-boat (U16) and scored several hits but did not damage pressure hull and submarine returned to Helgoland on 22 July. Later operated under names Q.32, CAROLINA, MASTER, SINTON and SWIFT.
11.1918: Returned to owners at Hull.
12.11.1918: Registered at Hull as SWIFT (H99) (BoT Minute M14349/1918 dated 29.10.1918).
7.6.1919: Vessel mortgaged (64/64) to London County Westminster & Parr’s Bank Ltd, London (A).
7.6.1919: John Slater, London appointed manager.
6.3.1923: Mortgagee re-styled as Westminster Bank Ltd, London.
14.10.1927: Mortgage (A) transferred to William Augustus Hayward, Eastbourne.
14.10.1927: Mortgage (A) transferred to Mercantile Marine Finance Corporation Ltd, London.
22.10.1928: Robert Burton, Hull appointed manager.
16.9.1932: Charles Hugh Emerson appointed manager.
10.1932: Mercantile Marine Finance Corporation Ltd in liquidation.
1.11.1932: Mortgage (A) transferred to Harold Frank Hayward, London; Maud Florence Katherine Rogers, Chelsea and Ernest Norton, London (joint mortgagees).
3.1936: Combined boxing and trawling fleet of Kelsall Bros. & Beeching Ltd and the Hull Steam Fishing & Ice Co Ltd consisting of 59 vessels laid up at Hull (declining catches, coal bill and increased maintenance costs had made the venture uneconomical).
6.3.1936: At Extraordinary General Meeting at Hull, Kelsall Brothers & Beeching Ltd placed in Creditors’ Voluntary Winding-up (Richard Field Helm of Messrs Hodgson Harris & Co, London appointed liquidators).
1936: Sold to Dutch subjects for breaking up.
11.2.1937: Hull registry closed “Sold to foreigners for breaking up”.

Click to enlarge images

S.T. Swift FD170
Picture courtesy of Jan H (shipsnostalgia)

S.T. Swift FD170
Picture courtesy of David Slinger

Changelog
15/01/2009: Page published. 4 updates since then.
01/09/2015: Information updated.
16/11/2015: Information updated.
02/08/2016: Information updated.
07/09/2017: Removed FMHT watermark from image.