Casgliadau Arlein

Three quarter Starboard Bow view of S.S. BELLAVISTA, at Cardiff Docks, c.1948.

(4348gt) : Built 1917 by Campbeltown Shipbuilding Co Ltd as LADY CHARLOTTE for Redcroft Steam Navigation Co. (Lewis, Lougher), Cardiff. 1919 – Sold to James, Muers & Griffin (James, Muers & Co.), Cardiff, and renamed SOUTHSEA. 1931 – Sold to Carras Bros., Chios, and renamed IOANNIS CARRAS. 1939 – Requisitioned by Poland and scuttled by the Polish Navy at Gdynia as a blockship. 1940 – Refloated by the Germans, repaired and nominally returned to Carras Bros., who renamed her SPYRIDON. On the 9th April of that year, she collided with a wreck, and docked at Stavanger where she was siezed by the German forces. 1941 – Initially renamed STORHAUG, managed for the Kreigsmarine by Brodrene Olsen, then renamed EKENES in the September. 1943 – Transferred to Partenrederei ”Patria”, Hamburg and renamed KOMET, managed by Hugo Stinnes Schiffarts Gesellschaft, Hamburg. 1945 – Requisitioned by MoWT, transferred to the Norwegian Government and renamed EKENES. 1946 – Returned to Carras Brothers and the Greek Government, and renamed SPYRIDON II. 1947 – Sold to Cia Nav Irini Carras, Panama, and renamed BELLAVISTA. She ran aground and became wrecked at Papa Westray in the Orkney Islands on 29 July 1948,while carrying iron ore from Narvik, Norway to Ardrossan. (ref : - Tony Allen Wrecksite / Clydesite.co.uk) (canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/.../bellavista ) (warsailors.com/homefleet/shipse)