Ullapool

Founded in 1874 by Robert Ropner, the company owned, managed & built ships.

The steamship Ullapool.

THIS REPORT WAS NOT ISSUED TO ANYONE (Headed with the W Gray stamp)

LAUNCH AT west HARTLEPOOL
    
On (Thursday 10th (this was striked out) and over written with Wednesday 23rd )November 1927, Messrs. Wm Gray and Co., Ltd., launched from their Central Shipyard the handsome steel screw steamer “Ullapool”, which is being built to the order of the Pool Shipping Co., Ltd., West Hartlepool.

The vessel will take the highest class in Lloyd’s Register and is of the following dimensions: Length overall 418’ 0’’, breadth, 53’ 6’’, depth moulded to upper deck, 29’ 5 ½’’, with long bridge, poop, and forecastle.

She is constructed on the cellular double bottom principle with fore and aft peaks, for water ballast, the framing being of the deep channel type, and has six watertight bulkheads, together with a steel centre line bulkhead and wood shifting boards dividing the holds for grain carrying.
    

Spacious accommodation for the officers is arranged in a steel house amidships. The engineers being berthed in large steel houses alongside casing, and the crew in cubicles in the forecastle, with separate mess rooms.

For the quick handling of cargo, ten powerful steam winches are provided to work twelve derricks. A direct-acting steam windlass forward and steam steering gear amidships are also fitted.
    
The topmasts are telescopic, lowering to a height suitable for the Manchester Canal Bridges.
    
The vessel will be completed in all respects as a first-class cargo steamer, including an efficient wireless installation and electric light throughout.

Master: 1941 William Jewitt Thwaites.

Ullapool was lying off Princes Stage in the Mersey when she was hit by a parachute mine dropped from a German aircraft. She broke in two & sank on 13 March 1941. 16 lives lost including master.

Lives lost March 1941: Burrough, John Phillip, 4^th engineer, 24, South Shields; Corkish, Arthur Alexander Hughson I, able seaman, 38, South Shields; Farnie, Henry, steward, 40, Sunderland ; Flannigan, John, fireman/trimmer, 26, Finsbury Park, Middlesex; Gray, Peter Scott, fireman/trimmer, 35, South Shields; Joicey, Albert Hector, fireman/trimmer, 33, North Shields; Kerr, Patrick George, 2^nd engineer, 60; Lake, Herbert, cook, 26, West Hartlepool; Logan, Alexander Russel, deck boy, 15; McKay, John, fireman/trimmer, 52; Patterson, John Common, fireman/trimmer, 19; Payton, Joseph Alfred William, radio officer, 32, Pembroke Dock; Scott, Frederick Harry, 2^nd officer, 24, West Hartlepool (son of Frederic & Hilda); Stephenson, James Alexander, 2^nd radio officer, 20; Thwaites, William Jewitt, master, 56, South Shields; Wenlock, George Henry Percival, sergeant (Royal Marines) aged 49.

Ullapool Yardbook pages