Casgliadau Arlein

¾ Port bow view of S.S. FORTHBANK entering Cardiff Docks.

Andrew Weir established himself as a shipowner at Glasgow in 1885. He acquired his first steamer in 1896 and by the 1920s an extensive world-wide network of cargo liner routes had been established under the title of the Bank Line Ltd. The Forthbank, seen here arriving at Cardiff, c.1950, was a 5,057 gross ton steamer built at Belfast in 1929. Sold to Italian owners in 1953, she was broken up in Hong Kong in 1959.

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

Built 1929 by Workman, Clark (1928) Ltd., Belfast, for Bank Line Ltd. (Andrew Weir & Co). She was bombed by enemy aircraft and heavily damaged on 1st March 1941 while carrying steel and general cargo to the UK as a member of Convoy WN91. One bomb demolished the wireless cabin instantly killing the Second Radio Officer, Leonard Moser. Two other strikes amidships put the main engines, steering and lighting out of action, and causing the superstructure to burst into flames. The hull remained intact however, and she was towed to Invergordon arriving on the 3rd. From there she was towed to Leith for full repairs. 1953 – Sold to Adriatico Tirreno Lonio Ligure, Italy, and renamed POTESTAS. She was broken up in 1959.