Collections Online

Starboard Broadside view of S.S. CHISWICK, at Cardiff Docks, c. 1946/1947.

ss CHISWICK (6006gt) : Built 1943 by William Pickersgill & Sons Ltd, at Sunderland, for Britain Steamship Co. Ltd. of London (managed by Watts, Watts & Co., of London). She was the company's third ship of this name. In 1950, the vessel left Sydney, Nova Scotia, for Montreal with a cargo of coal but due to her captain's error, grounded at 4 pm on 23rd June, south-east of Fox Point Pier, St. Lawrence River, about half mile off shore. The vessel was floated off at 7 pm having sustained extensive bottom damage, and continued on to Montreal. There were no casualties, but Captain Linton's licence was suspended for 2 years. 1952 - Bought by Willy H. Schlieker & Co., of Hamburg (a large steel and shipbuilding company) and renamed OLGA. On 26 May 1960, the vessel arrived at the yard of J. de Smedt, at Boom, Belgium, to be broken up. 1952 - Bought by renamed OLGA Olga 1943 A cargo ship. Per 1 ('pdf', report re 1950 grounding, Chiswick, 1st 2 pages only), 2 (image, Chiswick), 3 ('convoyweb.org', WW2 convoy duty, click on 'SHIP SEARCH' then insert Chiswick, but I cannot check the link), 4 (Miramar, link, you now must be registered to access). 126.5 metres long overall, 120.4 metres perpendicular to perpendicular, 401 ft., speed of 9 1/2 knots. Built 41 WW2 convoy references incl. 3 completed N. Atlantic crossings, extensive service in the Mediterranean (Port Said & Alexandria, Augusta, Bari, Naples, Marseilles, Brindisi etc.), to West Africa (Freetown, Takoradi, Lagos) & U.K. coastal. One of the eastbound N. Atlantic crossings was to N. Africa re 'Operation Torch'. At 7:58 a.m. on Jun. 22, amongst the crew. The Court determined that Lipton was solely at fault, considering him guilty of bad navigation & seamanship. His certificate was suspended for a 2 year period.