Archaeological remains associated with the loss of this vessel are not confirmed as present at this location, but may be in the vicinity.

Event and Historical Information:
This steel hulled cargo vessel was built at Port Glasgow by A Rodger & Company (yard number 398). The vessel was launched on 18 October 1906 and registered at Manchester. Technical and configuration specifications are given as 1170gt, 727nt; 244ft 6in length x 36ft breadth x 16ft height; screw propulsion powered by a single boiler 3 cylinder triple expansion engine producing 173 horsepower; 1 deck, 4 bulkheads; machinery by Ross & Duncan, Glasgow. On 18 April 1908, the Cardiff Times reported a serious pony and trap accident at Barry Island which injured the master of the ELLESMERE, Captain Bowie, and A C Clisset, foreman boilermaker. The Swansea Gazette and Daily Shipping Register notes the vessel entering/leaving the Prince of Wales Dock on several occasions in 1909 and 1910. The brokers being Richard Turpin & Co or Marshall & Co. Destinations included Gothenburg, Palermo, Leghorn, Valencia, Genoa, Bristol, and returns to the vessel's home river for Birkenhead and Manchester. At time of loss on the 9 July 1915, vessel was owned by SS Watson Co Ltd., Manchester, and captained by GW Heslop. It was enroute from Valencia to Manchester with a cargo of fruit, when it was torpedoed by German submarine U-20, 48 miles southwest of the Smalls. The captain reported that the enemy submarine commenced shelling without warning and fired 10 shots. A Norwegian fireman named Hilmar Jensen was killed and a Swansea lad, Thomas Boyle, aged 16, received severe injuries to his arm. When the firing of the submarine ceased it was found that all the boats except one were smashed, and that the 21 men had to get into the one remaining boat. The ELLESMERE was finally sunk by a torpedo. The U-20, under the command of Kaplt Walter Schwieger, had been responsible for the sinking of the Cunard liner LUISITANIA on 7 May 1915, with the loss of 1198 lives. Hilmar Jensen is commemorated on the Tower Hill Memorial for the Mercantile Marine.

Sources include:

The Cambria Daily Leader, 10 July 1915, p.1
The Cardiff Times, 18 April 1908, p.1
Goddard, T, 1983, Pembrokeshire Shipwrecks, p.102
Hilmar Jensen, Commonwealth War Graves Commission
HMSO, 1988, British Vessels Lost at Sea, p.8
Lloyd's Register Casualty Returns, 1 July - 30 September 1915, p.8 (i)
Lloyd's Register of British and Foreign Shipping, 1 July 1915 - 30 June 1916, number 4964 in E
Mercantile Navy List, 1910, p.160
Mercantile Navy List, 1915, p.183
Swansea Gazette and Daily Shipping Register, 21 December 1910, p.4 and
also 12 December 1910, 1 November 1910, 13 September 1910, 16 March 1910, 9 March 1910, etc.
U-Boat Project: Commemorating the War at Sea
UK Hydrographic Office Wrecks and Obstructions Database. ? Crown Copyright and database rights. Reproduced by permission of the Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office and the UK Hydrographic Office (www.ukho.gov.uk)
 

Maritime Officer, RCAHMW, September 2018.

This record was enhanced in 2020 with funding from Lloyd's Register Foundation as part of the project ‘Making the Link: Lloyd's Register and the National Monuments Record of Wales’. Visit Lloyd’s Register Foundation Heritage and Education Centre for more resources.