Bronze Age Gold from Wales

3/4 Starboard stern view of the S.S. MOSS ROSE, c. 1936

Richard Hughes was born at Gronant in Flintshire in 1858 and in 1884 he commenced business as a shipowner in Liverpool, acquiring the steam coaster Primrose. Most of his subsequent vessels were given names that incorporated the word 'rose', and his firm came to be known generally as the 'Rose Line' The 739 gross ton Moss Rose was built at Hardinxveld in the Netherlands in 1930; she is pictured here sailing up 'the Drain', c. 1936. Sold to Greek shipowners in 1960, she was later fitted with a diesel engine before she was eventually cut up at Perama in Greece in 1973.

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

Built 1930 by NV Scheepswerf de Merwede Hardinxveld Giessendam, Netherlands, (with a triple-expansion steam engine supplied by Earle’s & Co. Ltd., Hull), for Richard Hughes & Co (Liverpool) Ltd. 1952 Company restyled as Hughes Holden Shipping Ltd., Liverpool (same name). 1957 Sold to Kontos Bros., Piraeus, and renamed VIRGINIA K. In 1960 she was fitted with a second-hand 6-cylinder diesel engine built in 1931 by Franco Tosi of Turin. 1962 Sold to Stavros Deifas, Piraeus, and renamed SOFIA III. 1964 Sold to Dionysios N. Theodossis, Piraeus, and renamed DIONYSIOS TH. 1968 Sold to K.E. Papamarkais & Partners, Piraeus, and renamed OLKAS. 1971 Sold to M. Koutrouba & S. Giannis, Piraeus, and renamed SOTIRIA. She was broken up at Piraeus by Spiliopolis Brothers in March 1973. (Lloyds Registers via rootsweb.ancestry.com)