Court Line - the company and its ships

Framlington Court (1)

 

Court Line used the name Framlington Court for three ships:

 

· Framlington Court (1) - a cargo ship completed in 1911

· Framlington Court (2) - a cargo ship completed in 1924

· Framlington Court (3) - a cargo ship completed in 1952

 

Framlington Court (1) had a service life of 33 years during which she served in both World Wars but was finally sunk by a submarine during WW2 .

Basic Data

Type: Cargo ship

Registered owners,managers and operators:

The Framlington Syndicate Ltd.

Managers Haldinstein  & Co. Ltd.

Builders: R.& W.Hawthorn Leslie & Co.Ltd.

Yard: Hebburn, Newcastle

Country: UK

Yard number: 438

Registry: N/K

Official number: 129188

Signal letters: N/K

Call sign: SVXS (Cleanthis)

Classification society: N/K

Gross tonnage: 4,158

Net tonnage: 2,592

Deadweight: N/K

Length: 375.7 ft

Breadth: 51.2 ft

Depth: 24.3 ft

Draught: N/K

Engines: Triple expansion steam engine

Engine builders: Blair & Co.Ltd.

Works: Stockton

Country: UK

Power: 385 nhp

Propulsion: Single screw

Speed: 10 knots

Cargo capacity: N/K

Crew: 34 at time of sinking

Service Pre-WW1

 

No information currently available.

 

Service in WW1

 

Framlington Court (1) served in the following capacity during WW1:

 

· R.N.Collier No.1205 from 5/7/16 - 12/3/17

· Italian Govt. Service16/10/17 - 14/12/17 and 03/04/18 - 03/08/18

· Transport of wheat from River Plate up to 25/12/18

Participation in WW2 Convoys

 

Framlington Court (1) - as Cleanthis took part in 5 convoys according to information shown in the table below which is provided courtesy of Convoyweb   - see  Ext. Ref. #5.

Sinking

 

No reference to her loss can be found in Convoyweb - see  Ext. Ref. #5, so it seems likely that she was not taking part in a convoy at the time of her loss - unless there is a gap in the information recorded. This ties in with the report that follows.

 

According to Ext. Ref. #4, Cleanthis was attacked on 30 Nov 1942 by U-181 at position 24.29S, 35.44E en route from Aden to Durban with a cargo of ballast.

 

At 05.31 hours on 30 Nov, 1942, the unescorted Cleanthis was shelled by U-181 about 200 miles northeast of Lourenço Marques. The ship had been spotted 4 hours earlier and missed by two G7e torpedoes at 05.11 hours. The U-boat scored about 70 hits with 80 rounds from the deck gun and fired its last round from 400 metres into the waterline. At 06.55 hours, the burning ship sank after holes were fired into the stern with the 20mm AA gun. The survivors had abandoned ship in the last intact lifeboat. The master and eleven crew members were lost.

 

Out of a complement of 34 there were 12 dead and 22 survivors.

 

Currently no information is available about those lost as the ship was under Greek ownership and information is not held by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. The names of those lost will be added to the Roll of Honour below if they can be discovered.

Images

 

1. This photo was emailed to the Webmaster by a friend but the origin is not known. A very similar photo is included on the Uboat.net website and probably came from the same original source or was taken close to the same time.

 

This is not a particularly good image so if anyone has a better photo of this ship they are requested to contact this site (see Home Page).

 

Image 1