Mersington Court

From SN Guides

Introduction

Court Line used the name Mersington Court for just one ship. She was originally built for an Italian company in 1920, was laid up for some time, and was subsequently captured then scuttled by the Germans in Narvik not long after the outbreak of WW2. Overall she had a service life of 20 years.

Basic Data

• Type: Cargo ship
• Registered owners,managers and operators: Florio Soc. Italiana di Nav. - Managers I. & V. Florio (built as Giovanna Florio)
• Builders: Northumberland Shipbuilding Co. Ltd.
• Yard: Newcastle-upon-Tyne
• Country: UK
• Yard number: 241
• Registry: N/K
• Official number: 149770
• Signal letters: N/K
• Call sign: N/K
• Classification society: N/K
• Gross tonnage: 5,141
• Net tonnage: 3,217
• Deadweight: N/K
• Length: 375 ft
• Breadth: 51.2 ft
• Depth: 31.7 Ft
• Draught: N/K
• Engines: Triple expansion steam engine
• Engine builders: North Eastern Marine Engineering Co. Ltd.
• Works: Newcastle-upon-Tyne
• Country: UK
• Power: N/k
• Propulsion: Single screw
• Speed: N/K
• Boilers: N/K
• Cargo capacity:N/K
• Crew: N/K

• Employment: General purpose cargo vessel

Career Highlights

• 4 May 1920: Launched as Giovanna Florio
• Oct 1920: Completed
• 1927: Acquired by The United British Steam Ship Co. Ltd. - managers Haldin & Phillipps Ltd. and renamed Mersington Court
• 1936: Owners restyled Court Line Ltd. - same managers
• 1940: Taken as war prize by Germans in Norway but subsequently sunk
• 1952: Broken up at Antwerp

Pre-War History

No information currently available other than that she was laid up on the Tyne for a number of years during the 1930s depression.

Participation in WW2 Convoys

The data in the following table has been extracted from External Resource #4 which indicates that Mersington Court participated in 4 convoys.

A key to the routes for these convoys can be found on this page: World War 2 Convoy Names

Capture and sinking

External resource #5 provides the following statement:

According to "The Red Duster at War" both ships were lying at anchor when a German destroyer appeared and the Officers and crew were captured and put aboard the German supply tanker Jan Wellem while prize crews took their ships over. It goes onto say the ships were lost following action by Norwegian, French & British forces.

External resource #6 includes the following account amongst other information about the life of Jack Nicholson, Master of SS Peverton:

Jack Nicolson had been born in 1898 at the south ness of Hoswick, Sandwick. When he left school at 14 he became cook of the herring sail boat 'Family's Pride'. At the outbreak of the First World War, though only 16 he succeeded in joining up and serving throughout the war on motor torpedo boats. In the years following he stayed at sea and gained his master's ticket.

Early in the Second War he was master of the SS 'PEVERTON', one of four ships which were loading ore in Narvik in Norway, when they were captured by the Germans after the first battle there in April 1940.

The other three ships were the SS 'Blythmoor', SS Romanby' and the SS 'Mersington Court'. The officers and crews were imprisoned, in a local school, together with survivors from British destroyers 'Hunter' and 'Hardy'. The merchant ships were then taken out to sea and sunk. Conditions were grim for the prisoners. Freezing conditions, little heat or food and personal belongings and clothes lost with the ships added to the misery.

After the second battle of Narvik, the Germans were forced to evacuate the area and the prisoners were force-marched over the border into Sweden. Narvik is over a hundred miles north of the Arctic Circle and the journey took them over the mountains between the two countries, where the endured blizzards, deep snows, and then later rough country with wild gorges and fjords. For inexperienced seamen who had suffered in prison camp the prospects were daunting.

External resource #3 states that Mersington Court was scuttled at Narvik on 15.4.40 and broken up at Antwerp in October 1952.

External resources

1. Information extracted from Lloyds Registers by John Powell
2. Norman Middlemiss: Travel of the Tramps - Twenty Tramp Fleets ISBN: 1871128021
3. Miramar Ships Index: http://www.miramarshipindex.org.nz
4. Arnold Hague Convoy Database: http://www.convoyweb.org.uk/
5. Note on loss by Billy McGee: [1]
6. Sandwick Community online: [2]

Images

Awaiting an image of this vessel

Contributors

1. Basic research and construction of entry by Benjidog
2. History and basic details by John Powell