The winner of the April competition was Doug Burn of South Shields

Alan Blackwood writes:

I believe this month’s unknown to be the 4,584 grt Fotinia, completed on 10th July 1913 initially as Photinia and registered to the ownership of the Stag Line Ltd. of South Shields, with Joseph Robinson & Sons Ltd. as managers. She was the first of series of four virtually identical long bridge deck tramp ships laid down by William Pickersgill & Sons Ltd. at their Southwick Yard, Sunderland, with the remaining three units originally ordered by the Newcastle S.S. Co., but acquired by Evan Thomas, Radcliffe & Co. of Cardiff, each for resale to other owners when completed.

Photinia appears to have been the sole unit of the quartet which displayed handrails rather than bulwarks abreast of her #3 hatchway and the only one not to feature as built, a small deckhouse immediately forward of her double wheel steering position on the poop.

Photinia’s dimensions were 382’10.5″ (lbp) x 51’08” (beam) x 26’07” (moulded depth) and her main machinery consisted of a 431 NHP/ 2,200 IHP triple expansion engine constructed by George Clark Ltd. of Sunderland, to return a maximum speed of 10.5 knots, for a service speed of 9 knots.

On 5th April 1917 she was sold to the National Steamship Company of London (Fisher, Alimonda & Co. Ltd., managers). Some six days later she was mortgaged to the London & South Western Bank and on 12th July 1917 renamed Fotinia. On 23rd May 1929 the mortgage was transferred to J & C Harrison Ltd. and six days later management of the vessel passed to them, without further name change or PoR. (The funnel markings in the subject photograph would appear to partially reflect this management change). The mortgage was finally discharged during 13rh March 1931, thus freeing the vessel for disposal as required. This occurred during December 1932 when she was sold to S. Perivolaris of Chios, Greece and renamed Margaritis for operation under the Greek flag.

During 1939 she was sold to Mrs. A. Perry without change of name, with S. Perivolaris retained as manager, but with PoR transferred to Panama. She was sold to Kokoku Kisen Kaisha K. of Kobe, Japan during 1941 and torpedoed and sunk by the submarine USS Plunger on 18th January 1942 when some 80 miles SSW of Osaka.

Doug Burn writes:

I believe the April Mystery ship is the Monkswood, 4,176 grt. Monkswood was built by J. L. Thompsons of Sunderland as Marsfield for Woodfield Steam Shipping Co. Ltd., London.

In 1928 she was owned by Monkswood Shipping Co. Ltd. renamed Monkswood.

In 1933 transfered to St Quentin Shipping Co. Ltd. In 1935 sold to Elisabeth Lensen Navogation Ltd. London renamed Elisabeth Lensen.

In 1942 sold to Dalhousie Steam and Motorship Co. renamed Elizabeth Dal.

In 1944 she was beached after a collision with the tanker Jacksonville in the River Mersey and broken up.

John Jordan writes:

This has to be a bit of a guess based on the unusual design of this 5 hatch ship. My choice is SS Eskdene built around 1934 in Sunderland by Bartram’s. She was torpedoed twice by German U-Boats, the first on 2nd December 1939 by U-56 which wasn’t successful due to being held afloat by a timber cargo. The crew abandoned and were picked up, however the ship was eventually taken in tow and later repaired and returned to service.

On 8th April 1942, off the Azores, Eskdene was torpedoed twice by U-107 and required 104 rounds from main deck gun to put her down. In both sinking attempts all crew survived.

Christy MacHale writes:

April’s ‘mystery ship’ is the Monkswood. A 4176-ton steamer, she was completed in March 1910 by Joseph L. Thompson & Sons Ltd., Sunderland, as the Maresfield for the Woodfield Steam Shipping Co. Ltd. (Woods, Tylor & Brown), London. For much of the last two years of the Great War she was operated by the Admiralty as a ‘Q’ ship, under the fictitious identities ‘Chiswell’ and ‘Sequax’. She became the Monkswood when bought in December 1928 by the Monkswood Sg. Co. Ltd., Newport, a company newly formed by Group Captain George Buchanan Bailey, DFC. In 1933 Bailey pooled his shipping interests in the St Quentin Sg. Co. Ltd. (B. & S. Sg. Co. Ltd., managers), Newport – later to become the South American Saint Line – and this became the Monkswood’s new owners. She was sold in 1935 to become the Elisabeth Lensen of A.C. Lensen & Co., London, passing in 1942 to the Dalhousie Steam & Motorship Co. Ltd., London, and (most unusually for that stage in wartime) being renamed, her new identity being as the Elizabeth Dal. On 3 August 1944, having arrived in the Mersey at the end of a voyage from Montreal with a grain cargo destined for Manchester, she had to be beached on the Pluckington Bank after a collision with the U.S. tanker Jacksonville, and, by now a very el derly ship, was broken up locally.