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SHIPS WITH TWO NAMES Over the years a great number of ships arrived at Barry, some by accident finishing up on the shore. Some were total wrecks, and some being towed off and salvaged. Fortunately most ships arrived safely in Barry Docks, either to be loaded or to discharge their cargoes. Many of these vessel's names have been forgotten, but a few are still remembered, not by the names that their owners gave them, but by the names given to them by local residents. In September 1935 the French schooner Goeland, later known as The Onion Boat arrived in Barry in a violent storm. She was carrying a load of onions from Roscoff to Swansea. Whilst off Swansea the wind force increased and she was driven up the channel, finally arriving off Rhoose where distress signals were sent up. In storm force winds the Barry Lifeboat Prince David was launched. Just before the ship struck Friars Point the Prince David managed to come alongside the stricken vessel and, with great difficulty and great courage shown by the crew, rescued all on board. For this action the crew of the Prince David were awarded RNLI medals, which were presented the following May by HRH The Duke of Kent. As the Goeland broke up in the storm its cargo of onions became strewn along the shoreline, and they were greatly appreciated by the locals. The bell from the Prince David is still preserved in the 6th Barry Sea Scout Group headquarters. During the early part of the 1939-45 war, the Jamaica Planter, later to be remembered as The Orange Boat, struck a mine in the channel and was beached in the Old Harbour, near the Breakwater. In the process she lost most of her cargo of fruit, which consisted mainly of oranges, and these were later washed up on the shore, were sour and had an oily taste. She was later towed into Barry Docks for repair. Whilst under repair, she suffered further damage in a bombing raid on the Docks. After repairs were completed she left Barry bound for Swansea, and whilst in the Barry Roads she was in collision with the American Tanker Wellesley and sank. All the crew was saved. It wasn't until after the war ended that we realised that oranges didn't have an oily taste. The U-boat that was active and laying mines in the Channel was the U33. The next ship to be renamed was the Le Rhin, a French ship. An order was issued by the pro-German French Vichy government to all masters and crews of French ships, to return to their nearest French port. and hand their ships and cargoes over to the French Government. Anyone refusing the order would be considered traitors and shot. The Captain and crew of Le Rhin disobeyed this order and crept out of the port of St. Nazaire, later arriving in Barry Docks complete with a cargo of food, and apparently hundreds of bicycles. For this reason she became known as The Bicycle Boat. In order to support the crew the cargo was gradually disposed of to dockers, and members of the public that the crew had become friendly with. The captain and crew volunteered their services to the navy, and after a long period the Admiralty ordered the ship into Bailey's Dry Dock for a re-fit and to be modified. When she finally emerged from the dry dock she was re-named HMS Fidelity, and was used in undercover activities during the war, dropping off agents in occupied territory. It was on one of these clandestine trips on 30th December, 1942 that she disappeared, believed torpedoed and sunk. In 1950 two four-masted barques, the Pamir and Passat arrived outside Ranks Mills loaded with cargoes of barley grain in sacks from Australia. They had previously been laid up in Penarth Docks waiting for permission to unload. During this time rats that infested the ship took full advantage of the vast quantity of food available to them and increased their numbers. When the ships finally arrived in Barry and the hatch covers were taken off, it revealed a sea of rats and new names for the ships, The Rat Ships. An appeal went out for volunteers who owned terriers or any other dogs capable of killing rats to turn up on the dockside. 5,000 rats were estimated to have been killed whilst unloading the Pamir and 3,000 were gassed when the ship was being fumigated after discharging her cargo. The Pamir left Barry under tow for Penarth, with Capt. Hagerstrand and 12 licensed riggers as crew, where it joined the Passat until sold for scrap. Both ships were considered to be uneconomical to run. The ships were later bought by a German shipowner who had six cylinder oil engines installed in them. They were used until he finally sold them to the Pamir / Passat Cadet Sail Training Association. On 21st September 1957 the Pamir, outward bound from Buenos Aires to Hamburg was lost in a storm. Out of a crew of eighty-six, consisting mainly of cadets, there were only six survivors. The Passat on her way to Hamburg nearly suffered the same fate as the Pamir and took shelter in Lisbon. The training of cadets ceased and she was sold to the city of Lubeck to be used by nautical school at Travemunde as living quarters for its cadets.
© T. CLEMETT 1999
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