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Can you help? Is there someone amongst our contributors who had a family member who worked for Birch and or worked on the Mary Birch. Maybe some records in the Spalding Shipwreck Society?????
If yes we would love to hear your memories. We are particularly interested in the first Mary Birch.
The story as we know it so far is that the Mary Birch was used to name two different ships. A guy from Greece who is researching the ship’s history found out the wreck of the first Mary Birch which was built in 1917 by Warrens and (click the link to see Llyods record Lloyds_MaryBirch) The first Mary Birch was sold in 1925 and renamed Cesare and then subsequently Vincenzo Dormio.The last owner named it ‘’καλή τυχη’’ kali tichi, meaning good luck.
The S S Mary Birch, Margaret Birch,Violet Birch,Gwendoline Birch, ships were based at Fosdyke on the River Welland. The Margaret Birch was 135 ft long X 25 ft beam.
The second ship was built in 1915 by Beardmore & Co initial named the Swanage, and renamed the Mary Birch in 1935. (Click link to see Lloyds record Lloyds_Swanage)
The second Mary Birch was sunk in a collision in 1954 but was raised.
4 Responses
I would like to say that i haven’t found the wreck of the first Mary Birch,
i am just researching the history of the ship and found out that the Mary Birch was given to the two above ships.
The first Mary Birch-Cesare-Vincenzo Dormio is seen on the second photo,
while the Swanage and in 1935 second Mary Birch is seen in the first photo.
Thanks for the clarification- Regards Geoff
my father was the skipper of the mary birch when she was in collision with a hull trawler returning to hull from its fishing trip.all the crew survived,my father being the last person to leave the mary birch.she was sunk off the spurn point area. all details of the accident were reported in the hull daily mail.sadly ,my father known as Sam huddlestone,,failed to recover fully ,and passed away shortly after. he was a well known character around hull. would appreciate any stories concerning the mary Birch.
This book might be of interest The River Welland, Shipping & Mariners of Spalding
Keith Seaton
Also this website has info – https://www.heritagesouthholland.co.uk/?s=Birch
If you have more information you can share we would love to hear about it.
Regards
Geoff