"New Ship"

March 1913 ~ November 1915

Edernian. On the 29th March 1913 I joined the S S “Edernian” (2284 Tons Nett) at Hull as seaman, and proceeded to load general cargo at Antwerp and London for the Royal Mail co to ports in Brazil. The Master of this vessel was a native of Aberaeron and most of the deck crew were from the same locality. After the first voyage in this shop I was given ten shillings monthly, as extra to take care of morse and signalling in the Mate’s watch.

On the first voyage cargo was discharged at Bahia Rio and Rio Grande again, but there was no delay in entering on this occasion, although there did not appear to be any more depth at the entrance. We then proceeded to Rosario and loaded Maize for Plymouth and Falmouth and finally Cardiff, dry docking and sailing in ballast on the 31^st August 1913 for Nordenham, Germany, where we loaded a full cargo of salt for Wilmington N.C. U.S.A. Approaching the American coast we ran in to heavy weather, two ports, frames and deadlights in our

After discharging the salt we loaded cotton for Havre and completed the voyage at Penarth on the 14^th December 1913. We left, loaded with coal for Rio de Janeiro on the 19^th December 1913, discharged and went in ballast to Baltimore to load coal for Savona, on this passage we met with very severe weather, and after discharging at Savona sailed for home in ballast. Head winds on the Portugese coast compelled us to flood the after holds as the ship was unmanageable.

We arrived Barry Dock on the 18^th April 1914 and had nearly completed loading coal for Algiers when it was found that No 1 ballast tank could not be got empty owing to a leak somewhere, which was found by a diver to be due to loose rivets. These were wedged up by the diver and heavy cement boxes were fitted to enable us to sail on the 24^th April 1914. Having discharged at Algiers we proceeded to load salt at Cadiz for Buenos Ayres. Having reached B.A. after a slow passage, to save fuel, we discharged our salt and washed out the holds, but no grain cargo could be had after a salt cargo. Whilst waiting for a charter our bunker coal got overheated and about 600 tons had to be removed and placed on the after deck by the ship’s crew. This took some days and when we had all the coal out most of it was condemned as no longer being safe, as it had been badly overheated. Our next loading port was up the Plate at Santa Fee, and the cargo was Quebrachio wood, a form of swamp timber, very hard, and heavy, used apparently by tanneries. At this time the 1914 – 18 War commenced. We eventually sailed for New York via St Lucia and must have passed close to the German Cruiser Dresden on this journey. Having discharged at New York we loaded wheat for home, and when off North Ireland we were intercepted by H.M. Destroyer Stork and we were told to proceed to Lough Foyle where we remained some days.

After passing Bermuda we had to throw 600 tons of ballast over the side, and this was indeed a back breaking job, but we managed to get rid of the lot before we sighted our destination. At Wilmington we loaded a full cargo of cotton, just over 17,000 bales of it and brought it to Liverpool, paying off on the 20^th February 1915. We signed on again on the 7^th March 1915 under a new Master, and loaded a full cargo of coal and some naval stores at Barry, and eventually arrived at St Vincent, Cape Verde Islands at the end of March, and remained there until early October when we left for Key West for orders. We could only crawl across the ocean, and eventually made New York, where we loaded wheat, after a 28 day passage from New York in very good weather we arrived at London, and paid off there on 29^th November 1915.  

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