"SS Edernian"

Llong Pwll Parc

The Edernian was named after the village of Edern on the Llyn Peninsula, for she was owned by the brothers Owen and Watkin Williams, of Pwll Parc, of that village. She was built by North Eastern Marine Engineering Co Ltd. Sunderland, (Yard No 117) 3588gt 2284nt, length 342ft beam 51ft and she had a draft of 22ft. When she entered service in the Autumn of 1906, she must have been the pride and joy of the two brothers, for she was twice the size of any of the other nine ships they had. Registered at Cardiff, on the 8^th of August 1906. She spent the next eleven years plying her trade, mostly on the South American run, several Edern and Llyn men served on her at this time, including the three Edern brothers Hugh, John and William Roberts. (Scroll down this page for Hugh's account)

On the 30^th of March 1917, She struck a mine in the English Channel, but managed to reach Dieppe for dry dock and repair. On the 20^th of August 1917, she was torpedoed by a German U-boat, and this time was sunk, six miles south east of Southwold, whilst bound from Middlesborough to Dieppe with a cargo of steel. Fourteen lives were lost, including her Master, Chief Officer William Griffith, Nefyn, William Roberts, Edern and his friend Hugh Griffith Hughes, Nefyn, both Ordinary Seaman. The two of them were just seventeen years old. This was a tragedy of mammoth proportion for Llyn, and Edern in particular, being a small village with a closely knit community of seafarers, and their families.

R.I.P.

~~~~~~~

A typical Voyage on the Edernian

(Hugh Roberts, Edern's, voyages,  from March 1913 to November 1915)

On the 29th March 1913 I joined the S S “Edernian” at Hull as Ordinary 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 signaling 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 forecastle being driven clean out and flooding us out. We went to sleep after this in the potato locker above the transom aft, and one morning noticing the propeller had stopped, we came out and found that we had nearly run into a derelict American three masted schooner lying flat on her side, and her keel at sea surface level. On our arrival at Wilmington we were informed she had been run down by a steamer the previous night, all crew saved. So as not to cause danger to shipping she was destroyed by an American Coastguard Cutter.

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 River 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.

Scale of Provisions         Maintaining  Discipline

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.

Map or Safle                Website Map