Bronze Age Gold from Wales

Port broadside view of S.S. IOANNIS CARAS at Penarth Head, c.1936.

(4348gt) : Built 1917 by Campbeltown Shipbuilding Co., Campbeltown, 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 and initially 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 Seized 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 : - Clydesite.co.uk) (canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/.../bellavista) (warsailors.com/homefleet/shipse) : (see also P02.1279 for SPIRIDON II and NOTES)