Casgliadau Arlein

Three quarter Starboard Bow view of M.V. PORT FAIRY, on 2 January 1948.

(8072gt) : Built 1928 by Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson at Wallsend, as a refrigerated carrier for the Commonwealth & Dominion Line Ltd. (restyled as Port Line Ltd in 1937), and powered by two 4-cylinder 2SCSA oil engines. Her refrigeration equipment was modified in 1930 to carry chilled (as opposed to frozen) Australian meat. She was employed as an ammunition supply vessel during WW2. While in convoy in October 1940, she collided with the Canadian destroyer HMCS MARGAREE which sank quickly with a loss of 136 crew. In July 1943, a convoy she was in was attacked and two troopships destroyed 300 miles west of Vigo while en route from Greenock to Sierra Leone. Although PORT FAIRY was diverted to Casablanca, she came under further attack with a bomb setting her alight and disabling her steering. After jettisoning part of her cargo and filling her aft holds with water, she made Casablanca steering by her engines! Both engines failed however on Christmas 1953 due to contaminated lubricant, and the ship drifted for 3 days. The crew were in the process of rigging a temporary sail, when one of the engines was repaired and the ship reached port at 5 knots. 1965 She was then the oldest vessel in the fleet and was sold for scrap to Embajada Compania Naviera SA, Piraeus. She was renamed TAI SHIKAN for her final voyage to Cheoy Lee Shipyard, Hong Kong where she was broken up.