Bronze Age Gold from Wales

Starboard Broadside view of M.V. BRITISH COAST, c. 1947/1948.

Proudly claiming itself to be ‘the world’s largest coastwise liner fleet’, Coast Lines was the name given in 1917 to an agglomeration of three of Britain’s foremost coastal liner firms formed in 1913. Between 1917 and its eventual demise when taken over by P. & O. in 1970, Coast Lines came to dominate Britain’s coastal liner trade with a voracious policy of acquiring other firms and their services. The British Coast, built at Leith in 1934 was typical of the motor vessels built for Coast Lines in the inter-war years, and the 889 gross ton vessel had accomodation for twelve passengers.Seen here sailing up ’the Drain’ to the firm’s warehouse in the East Bute Dock, c. 1948, the British Coast was sold in 1964. (Source: Shipping at Cardiff: Photographs from the Hansen Collection 1920-1975 by David Jenkins, 1993.)

BRITISH COAST (889 gt). Built 1934 by Henry Robb Ltd. at Leith for Coast Lines Ltd., the first of four motor cargo vessels built by them for the Liverpool to London route, and the forerunner for many such ships. She was requisitioned by the Admiralty in October 1939 to supply cans of petrol to the British Expeditionary Force in France and made more than half a dozen of these dangerous trips up to May 1940. She was in the D-Day invasion in 1944 and continued supplying cased petrol for a long time after that as the demand for petrol on the Continent was insatiable. 1964 - Sold to Newfoundland Marine (of St.John's, Canada) and renamed NEWFOUNDLAND COAST. She was lost when she ran aground in the Turks & Caicos Islands in July 1981.