Casgliadau Arlein

Stern view of S.S. HOLDERNESS leaving Cardiff Docks.

A charming view of the 979 gross ton steam coaster Holderness sailing from the Queen Alexandra lock, Cardiff, c. 1957. She was built at Wivenhoe in 1920 as Maindy Tower for Cardiff’s Maindy Shipping Co. Ltd., and was eventually acquired by the Holderness Steamship Co. Ltd. of Hull in 1955. She had served her new owners for four years only when she went aground at Blyth in March 1959 and became a constructive total loss.

Source: Shipping at Cardiff: Photographs from the Hansen Collection 1920-1975 by David Jenkins, 1993.

Built 1920 as MAINDY TOWER by Rennie, Ritchie & Newport Shipbuilding Co. Ltd., Wivenhoe, Essex, (with an engine by Plenty & Son, of Newbury), for Jenkins, Richards & Evans Ltd., Cardiff. 1925 – Sold to Geddes & Couper, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and renamed GLEDBURN. 1936 – Sold to Kingdon Steamship Co.Ltd. (T.H. Donking & Sons), Middlesbrough, and renamed GRANGETOFT. 1955 – Sold to Holderness Steamship Co. Ltd., Hull, and renamed HOLDERNESS. She became wrecked on the Sow & Pigs Rocks, near Blyth, on 11 March 1959 while bound for Londonderry with a cargo of coal.