Casgliadau Arlein

3/4 starboard bow view of S.S. HARMONIC approaching the Queen Alexandra lock, Cardiff, about 1936.

The brothers John and Charles Harrison went into business as shipowners in London in 1888 with two second-hand steam Colliers. By 1914, they had built up a fleet of eleven vessels, all of whose names began with the prefix ’Har—'. The Harmonic was a 4,558 gross ton steamer built at Sunderland in 1930 and is seen here approaching the Queen Alexandra lock, c.1936. She was torpedoed and sunk in the south Atlantic on 5 May 1945. Harrisons ceased trading as shipowners in 1979. (Source: Shipping at Cardiff: Photographs from the Hansen Collection 1920-1975 by David Jenkins, 1993).

S.S. HARMONIC (4558 gt). Built 1930 by R.Thompson & Son, Sunderland for J & C Harrison (London) Ltd. 15 July 1943 U-172 stopped the HARMONIC 620 miles east of Rio de Janeiro. The submarine's captain waited until the ship's crew had abandoned the vessel before sinking her, then gave the crew a course to steer their lifeboats towards land. HARMONIC had been en route from Rosario and Buenos Aires to the UK with 7368 tons of linseed oil. One man was lost from a total of 41 crew and 6 gunners.