Bronze Age Gold from Wales

Starboard broadside view of S.S. HELLENIC at Cardiff Docks, c.1936.

(5472gt) : Built 1909 by Hawthorn, Leslie & Co. Ltd., Hebburn, Newcastle (with triple-expansion steam engine by the shipbuilder), for Rederi A/B Transatlantic, Gothenburg. 1936 – Transferred to M.J. Lyras & Co., Piraeus (same name), and then sold to Nailsea Steamship Co. Ltd., London, and renamed NAILSEA BELLE, managed by E.R. Management Co. Ltd. (Evans & Reid), Cardiff. 1937 – Sold to Triton Steamship Co. Ltd., Newport, and renamed ST. USK, managed by B & S Shipping Co. Ltd., Cardiff (one of Dick Street's companies). She was torpedoed and sunk on the 20th September 1943 by the German submarine U-161, 700 miles northeast of Rio Janeiro whilst en route from Rio Grande to Hull with a cargo of rice, beef and general cargo. (ref : - Lloyds register) (tynebuiltships.co.uk/H-Ships/hellenic1909)