Bronze Age Gold from Wales

¾ Starboard bow view of S.S. ALLEGRITY entering Cardiff Docks.

F. T. Everard & Sons commenced business as shipowners in 1892 with the purchase of a Thames sailing barge. The firm subsequently expanded to become one of the foremost owners of coastal cargo vessels and tankers in Britain. The 798 gross ton Allegrity was built at Grangemouth in 1945 as the Empire Tavistock, one of twenty-three coastal tankers of a type known as the ’Cadet' class. Acquired by Everards in 1951, she is seen here approaching the Queen Alexandra lock, c. 1953. The Allegrily went aground on St Anthony Head, Cornwall in December 1961; she was re- floated, but capsized shortly afterwards on 22 December 1951.

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

Coastal tanker built 1945 as EMPIRE TAVISTOCK by Grangemouth Dockyard Co Ltd., for Anglo-Saxon Petroleum Co. 1946 – Sold to Van Castricum & Co., London, and renamed SOBAT. 1951 – Sold to F.T. Everard & Sons, London, and renamed ALLEGRITY. She capsized after running aground near Falmouth on 22nd December 1961, and was regarded as a total loss. (mariners-l.co.uk/empireships)