SS Florrieston

A great deal can be found out about the service life of the Florrieston from documents preserved in the UK’s archive network. However, when it came to locating the vessel’s last resting place after being torpedoed by U91 on 20 April 1918, a significance difference in the loss location was noted in sources. We approached this puzzle by going back through the ship's service life and applying the BULSI method to our information gathering.

Using the BULSI themes to research the vessel (Build, Use, Loss, Survival and Condition)

The BULSI themes are five factors which draw together the main attributes of a shipwreck site. It encourages research and interpretation in the widest context - how they were built, used, the manner in which they were lost, how the site has survived, and how they have been investigated in the past. Adding socio-economic and military context to BULSI ensures an understanding of the ship's place in history.  The themes of community value and commemoration focusses research on the people directly involved in the ship’s story and how communities wish the loss to be remembered.  

Build

The Florrieston was built as the Battersea Bridge by William Gray & Co at Hartlepool for Bridge Steam Shipping Company Ltd, as can be seen here in this clipping from the Northern Guardian, 31 October 1901, pg4.

The archive relating to the ship's builder at Hartlepool Local Studies and Family History Centre includes the Yard Book, where technical detail of each ship built is recorded. The Battersea Bridge/ Florrieston was the 646th ship built by the Willian Gray & Co. The technical detail includes the size of decks and coal bunkers.

There is also a wealth of information within the collections of Lloyds Register Heritage Foundation including the ship's profile and cross section plans, boiler plans, and all the technical details recorded by the Lloyds Surveyor. These surveys would allow the vessel to receive its 100 A1 classification for insurance ( https://hec.lrfoundation.org.uk/archive-library/documents/search/everywhere:battersea-bridge#search-sec ).

Use - socio-economic and military context

Glimpses of the voyages undertaken and the more unusual events in life of the vessel can be found in British Newspapers Online – the British Library's collection of historical newspapers contained over 600,000 bound volumes of newspapers from Britain, Ireland and further afield, with more and more of these becoming available for online.

From the shipping intelligence column of newspapers, such as Westen Mail, Lloyds List, Liverpool Journal of Commerce, and Shield News, we can track the ship around the world by the dates by which it arrived and left ports. The ship’s first long-distance voyage was from London to Calcutta. This pattern continued - London or Cardiff to Genoa, Alexandria, Calcutta and Singapore – with the vessel being a regular user of the Suez Canal. When the vessel was sold and renamed the Florrieston, the pattern changed to Belfast or Barry to South American ports such as Buenos Ayres and Las Plata, and return via north American ports such as Savannah, Newport News or Galveston.

The trials and tribulations of voyages are also occasionally reported. A fire in a cargo of coal or in the ship's bunkers (i.e. coal stored separately and used for the ship's boiler and engine) could pose a real danger. As noted in this clipping below – the concern was that the opening of the hatches would introduce more oxygen to spread ignition.

Ship repair facilities, including a dock which could be drained to allow work on the hull, were common at most ports. The Battersea Bridge needed these services in 1907 at Barry. The number of hull plates on bottom of the ship that needed replacing is, unfortunately, obscured in the printing.

The vessel was amongst several whose movements were affected by a strike of engineers on coastal and tramp steamers for better wages and conditions. The strike affected the ports of Tyneside, South Wales, London, as well as the Clyde.

When war was declared, the Florrieston was in the Mediterranean completing a voyage from Glasgow to Alexandria and Seriphos.

Germany declared unconditional submarine warfare on 18 February 1915, whilst the Florrieston was voyaging across the Atlantic. The ship being in the US at  Norfolk, Virginia, in April, at Baltimore in August, and the returning from Genao to Wilmington in the same year.  

The Florrieston would continue to run the gauntlet of the U-boat menace for another three years until 20 April 1918, when it was torpedoed by the German submarine U-91 in the Irish sea.

Community Value and Commemoration

Crew lists from 1915 and 1916 preserved at the National Archives, Kew, reveal the hierarchy of roles performed onboard. At the top was the Master. The roles under his responsibility were 1  ^st   Mate; 2  ^nd   Mate; Steward, Mess and Steward; Bosun and Lamps; Carpenter and Sailor; Able-bodied Sailor; Sailor; 1  ^st   Engineer; 2  ^nd   Engineer; 3  ^rd   Engineer; 4  ^th   Engineer; Donkeyman; Fireman and Trimmer; Ship’s Cook; Apprentice; and Leading Gunner.

The Crewlist from 1915 provides insights into serious illnesses and a few labour relation problems - e.g. Firemen being ashore without leave and deserting. The Fireman and Trimmer role was a critical on the ship. They ensured a constant and controlled burning of coal, to generate the steam to drive the engine and propellors. They were also in the greatest danger. From bitter experience, the concussion of the torpedo blast could shear off the bolts of the engine room ladders and hence the firemen would be unable to escape ( BMS - Firemen, stokers and trimmers (barrymerchantseamen.org.uk) .

The Master Edward Smith; 2  ^nd   Mate D Hadlow;  Carpenter Louis Fritzhall; and Apprentice Edwin Stourmont are names which appear in both crew lists.  Louis Fritzhall was born in Linkoping, Sweden, and was lost with the ship on its last voyage (  Find War Dead | Search Results | CWGC  ).

Loss - Where is the Florrieston?

Locating the wreck itself remains somewhat of a mystery, for a vessel that is so well documented throughout its service life. The loss location has been variously noted:

It would seem that the confusion began to be promulgated in the ‘Lloyds War Losses: the First World War : casualties to shipping through enemy causes, 1914-1918’. The error may have been made by the compiler because, by 1918, the South Rock Light had ceased to be an operational lighthouse. In 1877, it had replaced by a light vessel 3kms to north on the North Rock. It is an easy transcription error to imagine, caused by 'Rock' and 'Stack' looking quite similar. Also the South Stack would have been an operating lighthouse, possibly at forefront of the compiler's mind in the post war period.  

The tower of the South Rock Lighthouse would still have been visible as a seamark to the Florrieston's crew in daylight hours before the vessel was attacked. The location East 1/2 North from the South Stack is not possible, as this places the loss location on mainland Anglesey.

Presuming that the vessel continued on its course northward to Glasgow after the last position observation was made, a potentially large search area is created by the other contemporary references.

The interpretation of E ½ North also poses a question – does it mean NE (representing an angle of 45 degrees between E and N) which is close to the location suggested by the British patrol boat P62. Or, does it mean half way to the secondary intercardinal direction of ENE as shown in the illustration above. This would place the loss location in the vicinity of a large wreck which has been surveyed previously, according to UKHO Wrecks data (UKHO 5098).

Survival - Finding a wreck that might match the vessel’s dimensions in the multi-beam echosounder data

In the location of the position given by the U-91, a sonar contact of 80m on length is reported but, again, this is potentially too small (UKHO 5114). The wreck identified as 'probably the Florrieston' was surveyed by the RV Prince Madog in August 2020. It lies within the search box created by the historical references at approximately 9 miles from the South Rock lighthouse and 7 miles for the former location of the South Rock lightvessel.

This wreck has a centralised bridge and funnel reminiscence of steamships of the period. However the dimensions of the wreck on the seabed suggest a larger vessel at 129m length, compared to the length of the Florrieston given as 331ft (100.8m).

These are the conundrums that continue to puzzle us with regard to locating the final resting place of the vessel and the 19 crewmen lost.

Useful Further Reading

Cadw, 2020, Managing the Marine Historic Environment of Wales   Managing the Marine Historic Environment of Wales (gov.wales)  

Historic England, 2016, Ships and Boats 1840-1850: Introductions to Heritage Assets   heag133-ships-and-boats-1840-1950-iha.pdf (historicengland.org.uk)  

Manx National Heritage, 2023, Archaeology on the Isle of Man   ArchaeologyintheIOM2023.pdf (manxnationalheritage.im)  

Wessex Archaeology, 2006, On the Importance of Shipwrecks   On the Importance of Shipwrecks - Dataset - data.gov.uk (publishing.service.gov.uk)