Court Line - the company and its ships

Cedrington Court

 

Court Line used the name Cedrington Court for just one ship.

 

She had a service life of 22 years which was brought to a close by her striking a mine in 1940 and sinking.

Basic Data

Type: Cargo ship

Registered owners,managers and operators:

The Shipping Controller London

Builders: Harland and Wolff Ltd.

Yard: Belfast

Country: UK

Yard number: 531

Registry: N/K

Official number: 142323

Signal letters: N/K

Call sign: GLBF

Classification society: N/K

Gross tonnage: 5,160

Net tonnage: 3,122

Deadweight: N/K

Length: 400.4 ft

Breadth: 52.3 ft

Depth: 27.4 ft

Draught: N/K

Engines: Triple expansion steam engine

Engine builders: Harland and Wolff Ltd.

Works: Belfast

Country: UK

Power: N/K

Propulsion: Single screw

Speed: 11 knots

Cargo capacity: N/K

Crew: N/K

Service Pre-War

 

 

No information currently available apart from that Cedrington Court was laid up for some years at Milford Haven during the Depression of the 1930s.

Participation in WW2 Convoys

 

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

Sinking

 

Cedrington Court struck a mine 2 miles North-East of the North Goodwin lightship at position 51.23N/1.35E on 7 Jan 1940 and sank. One source states that she was en route from Buenos Aries to Hull with a cargo of wheat and that the crew were saved. Jevington Court (1) was another Court Line ship in the same convoy; she was unharmed on this occasion but had a similar fate on a later convoy.

 

According to Ext. Ref. #4:

 

The entire crew of 34 of the Queen’s Island-built ship Cedrington Court (5,160 tons) were saved when the vessel sank ten minutes after an explosion off the South-East Coast of England. The only lives lost were those of four monkeys, five canaries, and a cat, all pets of the crew, who had no time to save them. The Cedrington Court was owned by Court Line Ltd., and its port was Hull.

Images

 

1. Provided by Tom Quirk - original source is not known

Image 1