Old Transportation Links & Neighbours
The Last Journey
Contributor – Heritage Trail Brian
Picture Credit – HMS Revenge and HMS Nelson from the George Hastie Collection
Today we return to ships whose last destination was the breakers yard at the Thos. W. Ward of Inverkeithing. Many illustrious cruisers and warships took the same last journey by gently passing by St Bridget’s Kirk with the Forth Rail Bridge clearly on the horizon but this time these battleships, who served us so well, would not be sailing under the famous bridge to visit the Rosyth Naval base, this time they would slip by St David’s to their last berthing at the Inverkeithing yard.
Pictured here in 1949, tied together, are HMS Revenge and HMS Nelson. In a landscape which bears no resemblance to today, however in the top left-hand corner you can just about make out the Forth Rail Bridge.
HMS Revenge arrived on the 9th of September 1948 after serving in both world wars, notably in 1916 at the Battle of Jutland but she had spent the previous few years as a training ship at Gairloch and finally at Davenport.
HMS Revenge was built at Vickers shipyard at Barrow-In-Furness and was launched on the 29th of May 1915 and after her commissioning in February 1916 joined the ‘Grand Fleet’ in time to take part in the Battle of Jutland during May 1916. It was noted that she engaged with German battlecruisers and inflicted damage on two of them, but this was her only action of note during WW1.
During the initial stages of WW2 Revenge saw service in escort convoys famously moving some of our gold reserves to Canada in Operation Fish during 1939-1940 and in the seizure of French warships when the French surrendered in 1940. Her last operative role was to take Prime Minister Winston Churchill to the Tehran Conference but in reality, she was outclassed in the technical stakes of more recently built WW2 ships and was removed from front line service in 1943.
HMS Nelson was the younger of the two ships and was built at the Armstrong-Whitworth yard in South Tyneside and was launched on the 3rd of September 1925. HMS Nelson was commissioned on the 15th of August 1927 and for most of her time she was the fleet flagship and would go onto to see a lot of active service.
Her WW2 campaign did not get off to a great start as she was badly damaged by a mine on the fourth of December 1939 at the entrance of Loch Ewe but although seventy-four sailors were wounded, remarkably there were no fatalities. She made her way to HM Dockyard in Portsmouth for repairs and then onto the Clyde to complete a refit.
1941 seen the Nelson involved in reconnaissance trips between Scapa Flow and Rosyth before moving down to the Mediterranean and was in the thick of manoeuvres supporting the defence of Malta but during operations against the Italians found herself torpedoed and had to limp into Gibraltar. The hit to her torpedo body was worse than originally thought with temporary repairs carried out which allowed for the Nelson to get back to safety and securely back into dry dock at Rosyth from December 1941 to April 1942
After repairs HMS Nelson found herself back in action and supported the British invasion of French Algeria in 1942 (Operation Torch) and went on to support the invasions of Sicily and mainland Italy. Once again, she was struck by a mine in 1944 whilst providing naval gunfire support of the Normandy landings. After her major repairs she was transferred to the Eastern Fleet until mid-1945 when the Japanese surrendered and, on her return, for nearly a year, she was once again the flagship of the Home Fleet.
During its time HMS Nelson had the honour of visits from King George VI as well as Prime Minister Winston Churchill who once stayed overnight whilst hosting meetings with President Roosevelt representatives at Scapa Flow.
HMS Nelson also hosted General Dwight D Eisenhower when he met with Italian Field Marshal Pietro Badoglio to sign the treaties for the Italian armistice with the Allies and whilst acting as the flagship for the British Eastern Fleet it also hosted the surrender of the Japanese Rear Admiral Uozomi off the Malaysian coast.
During her time, she was a frequent visitor to Rosyth as a flagship, so it was quite disappointing to see her demise when chosen to be a bombing practice target on the Firth of Forth before being received at Inverkeithing on the 15th of March 1949 for scrapping.
Source Credits:
Service Histories of Royal Navy Warships by Lt Cdr Geoffrey B Mason RN (Rtd)
Kennedy Hickman
Wikipedia
ThoughtCO
Interesting Engineering
A Nautical Story From our Coastal Path Shores
Contributor: Jamie McPhail
Picture Credit: George Hastie Collection, Marie Celeste (Wikipedia) and Canmore for Charlestown scene
The Dalgety Heritage Trail has made a number of requests for photos and memorabilia since we started our project back in July 2020 and we have been extremely grateful for the items we have received from our readers and followers.
At the turn of this year, we were contacted by a local history enthusiast who sent an email to us at the end of January who told us:
‘I photographed pictures from a private photo album from 1894 which I found in a second-hand book shop. The people had stayed at Aberdour, 5 miles along the coast and had visited St Bridget’s church yard, Inverkeithing and a village with 17th century houses, Culross. They took photos along the way including a steam ship and a sailing ship off Aberdour.
I bought the album, though it was quite expensive, because I saw immediately that it was the coastline of my youth. I had gone walks to St David’s harbour from which coal was shipped with my uncles from the age of 5 and seen St Bridget’s kirk when I was older and knew Aberdour with its beautiful beach and impressive gates leading into the Donibristle Estate. So, all my childhood was there. Who but me would want or know all these places? So, I bought it and copied it.
St David’s village fell into disuse, the pub shut and the houses were swept away. Donibristle mansion house had been gutted by fire in 1858 and was one of the places they visited and photographed but the servants’ wings remained and were used as big houses for Naval personnel. More importantly a brand-new town, Dalgety Bay has been created with a population of 10,000 people with a great history society called the ‘Dalgety Heritage Trail’ and I would like you to have them’
He went on to say ‘I have done some research on the steam ship and I know it was built in 1894 and it’s been photographed whilst conducting speed trials on the Forth but I have nothing on the sailing ship and as for the sailing ship I’m expecting you to come back to me with both the Captain and the ship cat names’
First of all, it was extremely rare for anyone to have a camera in 1894 but this group of visitors stayed at the Woodside Hotel and set out on their journey on trap and pony and went on a touring trip around Aberdour, see pic 1, the Donibristle estate (Pic 2), Inverkeithing, and all the way to Culross stopping off and taking photos at all the places they visited.
Pic 1 : Victorian touring party outside the Woodside Hotel
Pic 2: Donibristle House 189
So, the challenge was taken up by the Dalgety Heritage team and even we couldn’t have envisaged the connections we were to find.
The first ship picture was fairly straightforward as written on the reverse was ‘SS Narova on sea trials’. Research showed that she was launched in Leith at the Ramage and Ferguson yard, as a general cargo ship in April 1894. Our visitors, just so happened to be in the right place at the right time, and took a photograph of her whilst conducting sea trials on the Forth, see pic 3.
Pic 3: The SS Narova on sea trials on the River Forth
The SS Narova was later purchased by the Admiralty and renamed as RFA (Royal Fleet Auxiliary) Gibel-Yedid. She served as a collier out of Gibraltar until, unfortunately being captured by the German U-boat ‘U48’ whilst on passage from Newport to Gibraltar on the 17th of July 1917, she was boarded and scuttled but gladly her crew survived.
The U48 had previously took part in the ‘First Battle of the Atlantic’ however in the same year as her encounter with our ship, on the 24th of November, ran aground on the Goodwin Sands and she too was scuttled and abandoned.
The dating of the SS Narova was our starting clue to the second picture of a sailing ship, see pic 4.
Pic 4: ‘The Pearl’
She is a classic Brigantine, many were built in the shipyards of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, all to a standard design. Her most famous sister ship was none other than the sailing vessel named ‘Amazon’, she was renamed in 1868 and is now better known as the ‘Mary Celeste’, (Pic 5 a painting of the Mary Celeste). Her story is well known so no need for us to expand on that tragic story.
Pic 5: The Marie Celeste credit Wikipedia
After extensive research we finally identified our ship as the brigantine ‘Pearl’. She was around 87 ft in length, weighing 128 tonnes. She was two masted and specifically designed for carrying coal around the UK coast. Built in Montrose in 1861 for a Scottish owner to the same design as the Mary Celeste, she had a hard-working career.
Pic 6: Charlestown Harbour in the 1800’s Credit Canmore
She traded regularly out of Charlestown, like many brigantines see pic 6 during the late 1800’s (not of our ship), carrying coal and limestone, too big for Inverkeithing or Aberdour, even St David’s, so why the connection?
So, lets go back in time to 1880 with Captain Fuller in command:
FIFESHIRE ADVERTISER, Saturday 17th of January 1880
The wrecked schooner Pearl of Montrose with over 200 tonnes of coal was sold by auction where she lay on the rocks near Inchcolme in the Forth, Meadulduse Rocks, on Tuesday last and was purchased by Capt. E.S Coull ship chandler, here for £19. Immediately after the sale Capt. Coull got his purchase afloat and landed her in Burntisland, where he was offered £300 for the ship and cargo which he declined. Her crew were safely carried to Aberdour.
Interesting to note is that at the she was in command of Capt. Joseph Ferrier, and of the £19 sale at auction, £8:10 was for the vessel and £11:10 was for the cargo of coal and the equivalent value of £300 today is £38,400.
Her story does not end there though, the Pearl was repaired and eventually sold to Mr Archbold of Jarrow. She carried on sailing around the UK coast and was pictured in 1894 by our touring party doing just that, but sadly she met her end in the River Thames on the 1st of December in 1910, when she foundered on a sandbank and was abandoned. She is now a registered dive site for those who wish to see her today… only about 90 miles from the site of the U-48.
(We are still working on the name of the cat)
The Strangest of Connections
Contributor – Heritage Trail Brian
Picture Credits: Dalgety Heritage Trail Library, Rickey Long, White Swan Hotel, Wikipedia
The White Swan Hotel Alnwick
Today I am going to stretch beyond our land-based heritage to what has passed by us, within touching distance of our remarkable coastline.
Just before Easter my partner and I spent a long weekend in Amble, Northumbria. A typical coastal town built around its harbour which is still active today and hosts a nice weekend market.
As part of our planned itinerary for our trip was to stop off at Alnwick for the day on our way back home. It is not our first visit to the town, and I am sure many of our readers will have frequented the pretty market town, it’s gardens and castle of ‘Hogwarts fame’, they are all a well-trodden path.
The hotel main entrance and descriptive plaques on the left of the entrance
Whilst walking around the town I was not looking for any connections to the ‘Dalgety Heritage Trail’ and, as I have indicated it is not my first visit, so why would I …. But I did find one as I read the hotel plaques … and to my great surprise it was quite a wow moment!
The Wards / Whites breakers yard at Inverkeithing and St David’s has an amazing nautical history, albeit around the final journey of many historical ships, which all passed Downing Point, to their last port of call. It is important to remember and respect the importance to people’s memories and families of those who have sailed on these ships and the fondness that they are held in, and of course the stories of their time spent on the boats which creates strong connections to the yard.
It will not be ground-breaking news to many of you that our connection to the ‘Titanic’ story sits with the breaking up of the hull of her sister ship the S.S. Olympic here at the Thos. W. Wards yard in 1937.
SS Olympic taken from Wikipedia site
Wall mounted replica model facing the reception
The Olympic was initially stripped and broken up above the waterline at Jarrow before being towed up to here on the 19th of September 1937 to meet its final demolition at our yard. Understandably it will always be associated, and to some degree overshadowed, by her younger sister ship the Titanic, but she had our own claims to fame.
She was twice the largest ocean liner in the world between 1910 and 1913, she lost the record for a brief time to the Titanic and then again to a German ship called the SS Imperator. The Olympic was requisitioned by the Admiralty in 1915 to serve as a troop carrier and over a successful war service earned the nickname ‘Old Reliable’.
In May 1918, in the English Channel, whilst carrying American troops from New York, the Olympic spotted the U-103 surfacing close by and the Olympic immediately opened fire and manoeuvred to ram the U-boat. The U-boat tried to dive but the Olympic struck the submarine and its propellor sliced through the U-103’s pressure hull. The U-Boat crew then scuttled and abandoned their submarine. A plaque was placed on one of the ship’s lounges and read as follows:
‘This tablet presented by the 59th Regiment United States Infantry commemorates the sinking of the German submarine U103 by Olympic on May 12th, 1918, in latitude 49 degrees 16 minutes longitude 4 degrees 51 minutes west on the voyage from New York to Southampton with American troops’.
In the middle of Alnwick is the 300-year-old Coach Inn called the ‘White Swan’. It’s owner, at the time, Algenon Smart, who had been a frequent passenger on the liner, attended an auction in 1935 and purchased the wood panelling and ceiling from the ships first class lounge, the aft staircase, windows and the revolving door from the Olympics’ restaurant and retro fitted them into his White Swan Hotel and they can all still be viewed to this day.
The receptionist had the polite look that says that I wasn’t the first tourist to walk in and ask for permission to have a look at their dining room and take pictures. I am so glad that I did, regardless of the connection to the breakers yard, it was amazing to get up close and marvel at the workmanship that went into these cunard transatlantic liners, the likliehood is that we will never see its like again.
Grand mini stairway leading to the hotel dining room
Ornate ceiling taken from the Olympic
The decorative detailed panels at the bay windows and a wider view of fireplace and dining room
Ornate fireplace and decorative windows
St David’s Harbour
Contributor – Heritage Trail Brian
Credits – The British Newspaper Archive, Postcard Collections, Dalgety Heritage Trail Collection
I came across this article about a day trip from Edinburgh to St David’s in the Edinburgh Evening News from 26/8/39. The article is a gentle description of life at the time, looking for different ways for families to spend their weekend recreation time …. 5 days later Germany invaded Poland, followed two days later by Britain declaring war on Germany
EDINBURGH EVENING NEWS 26/8/1939
ST DAVID’S PORT OF PEACE
Whenever the days begin to shorten, the thoughts of the tramper turn to the same subject – where to find fresh country for the weekend outing without journeying too far away. A difficult problem this, for it often seems as though every yard of lane and by-way near home has been discovered. Here, however, is a suggestion which may provide Edinburgh walkers with a new bit of countryadmirable for a Saturday afternoon or Sunday when the darkness falls earlier than in midsummer.
‘Bus to Queensferry’ and then over the water on the ‘Queen Margaret’ or ‘King Robert the Bruce’ (Both ferries, Pic 1 and Pic 2, were built in Dumbarton and launched in 1934). The well-known crossing is one which never seems to pall, some fresh interest always being present.
Picture 1: The Queen Margaret
Picture 2: Robert The Bruce
LEANING TOWER
Landed at North Queensferry, Inverkeithing is soon reached and then the shore is sought and the walk along the path by the water is started. A quiet corner this, close by the great bulk of the bridge, seen silhouetted against the western light. Past the masts of the wireless station and on by the great quarry which has eaten its way into the solid rock of the cliff.
Now ahead can be seen St David’s, a tiny harbour with a little cluster of buildings on the quayside across the bay (Pic 3). Near enough, it looks, and yet it is a good step round by the shore path, but 20 minutes’ walking brings the wanderer to the hospitable door of the ‘Fordell Arms, and never was an inn so conveniently placed! The quayside at this privately-owned harbour is covered with railway lines and coal trucks, for this is the shipping port of the Fordell Colliery, a truck running up to the pit, which lies a mile or two inland.
Fife seaports are famed for their quaintness and St David’s is no exception, for even the little lighthouse at the end of the jetty seems bent on outdoing the Tower of Pisa so far it leans from the vertical! (Pic 4)
Picture 3: St David’s Harbour
Picture 4 : St David’s Lighthouse with Fordell Waggons
LOST FOREIGN TRADE
Shipping is scarce, a coal barge tied up at the cranes and a small steam yacht lying in the mud being usually the only craft “in the port,” (Pic 5) but a lot of good coal leaves this little harbour for Admiralty vessels at Rosyth. At one time many foreign boats came here from the Continent, and the ships stores did a thriving trade, but now this exporting has almost ceased, and St David’s has become a sleepier place. A few parties find their way down the long road from the bus route to picnic by the shore and to explore the caves which lie to the east, but St David’s is never overrun, and its peaceful charm is always safe.
The inn is delightful – an old-fashioned building with small windows and narrow passages and although the stranger might wonder how trade can be done in such an inaccessible place the bar is seldom empty (Pic 6). Looking across the Firth, the white buildings of Cramond gleam from their background of trees, while to the left is the great mass of the Granton gasometer looking high from the low shore with all the tracery of Edinburgh’s spires and turrets rising back.
Picture 5: St David’s ballast pier
Picture 6: St David’s from the east
SURE TO GO BACK
The return from St David’s can be made by a tramp up the narrow road which climbs by the rail track up to the busy Aberdour – Inverkeithing ‘bus route’, past Government land which lies by Donibristle Aerodrome.
So, by little Hillend village, Inverkeithing and North Queensferry are again passed through, and the waiting ferry boat takes the wanderer back to the ’other side’. Few who have ever visited this peaceful spot will regret the journey made to know it, and fewer still will not return. They say that
for every newcomer to St David’s from Edinburgh at once toys with the idea of shortening the distance by treaty with some motorboat hirer from Cramond!