Bronze Age Gold from Wales

¾ Starboard bow view of S.S. FRANKENWALD and tug MARGARET HAM at Queen Alexandra Dock, Cardiff, c.1936.

One of the best-known German shipping firms was the Hamburg-Amerika Linie, established in 1847 with four small sailing vessels. In this 1936 view the 5,062 gross ton Frankenwald, built at Hamburg in 1922 is assisted into the Queen Alexandra lock by the local tug Margaret Ham. Originally built for the company's Hamburg to West Coast South America service, she had accommodation for ten first-class passengers. She was wrecked forty miles north of Bergen whilst bound from Narvik to Germany with iron ore on 6 January 1940. Note the Swastika ensign of the Third Reich flying on the poop.

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

ss FRANKENWALD (2) (5062gt) : Built 1922 at Tollerort (Tyskland)(?), FRANKENWALD sank on 6th January 1940. The ship missed the channel in Brattholmen, Norway, striking rocks, she quickly started to sink. The crew took to the lifeboats and were soon rescued by fishing vessels and landed at Bergen.