Court Line - the company and its ships

Mersington Court

 

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

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: GMZK

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

Cargo capacity: N/K

Crew: N/K

Service Pre-WW2

 

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

 

Mersington Court took part in 4 convoys according to information shown in the table below which is provided courtesy of Convoyweb   - see  Ext. Ref. #5.

Capture and Sinking

 

Ext. Ref. #29 by Billy McGee 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.”

 

Ext. Res. #30 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.”

 

Ext. Ref. #2 states that Mersington Court was scuttled at Narvik on 15.4.40 and broken up at Antwerp in October 1952.

Images

 

1. Image #1 by courtesy of Clive Ketley.

 

No images have been located to date of this ship in working order. Anyone having one is requested to contact this site (see Home Page).

 

 

Image 1

Image 1 is a newspaper picture showing Mersington Court after she had been scuttled. The cables suggests that she is being recovered so may have been taken shortly before she was taken to Antwerp in 1952.