THE LADY GWENDOLEN - With thanks to George Robinson

A ship is a marvellous structure, not simply because it carries people and goods to all corners of the globe, not just because it is a sight to behold in all its majesty, sweeping through the waves, nor just because of the skills of its builders and its crew - marvellous as all of these reasons are, there is one other aspect of a ship that we tend to overlook - its life and history.

Every now and then a ship will come to your attention that otherwise you would have over-looked or simply dismissed as not at all important.

At one time the British Isles had hundreds of small coasting ships taking all manner of goods to their destinations. These days that trade has largely been displaced by the car ferry business and containers - although some coasters remain to handle non-containerised goods such as aggregates, coal and the like.

One of the most important trades, (to the average man in the street!) was and is how to ship beers and spirits to get them to the pub. Nowadays this is largely done by road tanker and ferry, but up until relatively recently, the coaster was the workhorse that took spirits from island distilleries and, in the case of the ship in question here, the famed Guiness from Dublin to the UK.

I suppose they had (and still have) their fans, but to the majority of the public, and I would guess lots of shipping buffs, they were simply unremarkable little boats that worked hard, but deserved no degree of attention, this being the preserve of liners and gigantic tankers.

The vessel was launched at the Ardrossan Dockyard, in the town of that name of the Ayrshire coast, on the 17th November, 1952. A small vessel of 213 feet, she was launched in a year that had elsewhere on the Clyde seen the famous liner of British India S.N.Co, the UGANDA, launched and delivered, as well as turbine channel steamers from Wm Denny, the LORD WARDEN and NORMANNIA, big beautiful cargo vessels for Clan Line, Hain, Ben Line, Federal Steam Navigation and many more. To modern eyes it was an astonishing output.

(Incidentally, a vessel very well known on the Clyde today, the RENFREW FERRY was also built in this year!)

Out of all of the vessels built in that year, the one we are speaking of here, was probably amongst, it is fair to say, the unsung, un-noticed little vessels, from a part of the Clyde that rarely got the attention the more famous Inverclyde and upper river areas. Her name was THE LADY GWENDOLEN and she was built for none other than the Guiness brewing company.

THE LADY GWENDOLEN - With thanks to George Robinson

Her lot from her completion in 1953 was to carry her precious cargo of the same name to the UK from Dublin, and no doubt she did this effortlessly, trundling along at 11 knots, delivered from her Govan-built British Polar engines.

But she was to play an important part in British maritime law when on a day in thick fog, November 1961, she collided with the tanker FRESHFIELD, anchored in the Mersey, which then sank. Fortunately there were no fatalities, but nonetheless it sparked off a serious change in law.

Guinness tried to limit their claim, but on investigation, it was found that the ship regularly exceeded speeds that would make for safe navigation. It was ruled that they could not limit their claim, because they had failed to act to ensure that the vessel's master took proper heed of safety at sea. In effect, it was the company's fault.

In time this would be written into new legislation with further legal enforcements with consequences for all concerned, from the board-room to the offending crew. So this vessel was instrumental, unhappily, in making it clear to owners that blaming their crew as not an option if it was clear the owners had failed to implement proper safety guidelines and instructions.

THE LADY GWENDOLEN was sold out of the fleet sometime around 1976 and she ended her days as the PAROS.

Her fate?

Ironically on 10th November 1979 she was at anchor at Ravenna - and yes, you guessed it, another ship ran into her and sank her.

Now, next time you look at an ordinary wee ship, just imagine what tales she can tell!

(With thanks to Colin Campbell for updates to the original record in the Clydebuilt Database)