Risdon Beazley Postscript One
Daniel Cox worked as a joiner for Beazley's throughout the war, he kept a diary that is now at the Southampton Archives; there is some useful material in these diaries.
Professor Robert Bennett has been in touch; Robert's father, Tom, was the Risdon Beazley Accountant. He joined the company with the large 1940 intake and stayed with Mr Risdon Beazley when Risdon Beazley Ulrich Harms was formed in 1969. After that he worked for many years at RAB's Twyford home; where, among other things, he oversaw the shredding of the documents! Tom kept a journal throughout his time with the firm and we are hoping to be able to incorporate some of that material in a subsequent Postscript.
In the book this picture was captioned 'Wreckage at Kingswear, from Hertzogen Cecille?' A railway buff had identified the site as Kingswear, but we did not know of a job that the firm had done near Kingswear (Dartmouth Devon U K). With kind help from Mr Dave Griffiths, son of the former Dartmouth Harbour Master, this wreckage was identified as coming from the English Trader. Dave has sent us copies of photographs from a book about this casualty, with hand written notes his father made.
Captain Griffiths writes: “The English Trader was entering Dartmouth for bunkers pilot George Ridalls
on board, the Master came from Brixham At 4 AM on the 23rd Jan 1937 I was wakened by a ship blowing,
soon I knew that a ship was ashore just outside the Castle. Contact was made with Dartmouth Coastguard
and Brixham Lifeboat weather at the time light to moderate SW swell. I made contact with Mr Risdon Beazley
of Southampton who arrived at Dartmouth at 8 AM. He soon had a crowd of coal lumperson board. Vessel
was loaded with maize, tons were discharged overboard, and when weather was calm, Dutch coasters
loaded alongside this made little difference as the vessel was fast for'd, with rocks well inside No1 hold.”
There is a good photo of the English Trader in a Southampton drydock on the Plimsoll website
Coal lumpers at work
English Trader on the mud at Kingswear - minus bow.
By the 22nd February the bow had been 'amputated' and the casualty was towed into
the Dart and beached at Kingswear. Captain Griifiths continues: “This day was the most worrying for me, to give the salvage officer the
OK to burn the foredeck just for'd of No2 hold, I had demanded extra
heavy pumps to be added to the very many others, all pumps were working
while the ship was towed close to the Kingswear shore the extra pumps
were really needed.”
The second photograph
taken on the 22 February shows one of the Smit tugs towing the
casualty, stern first, with Beazley's salvage vessel Recovery of Leith
in the background.
The Lloyd's Casualty Reports
make interesting reading, though without Captain Griffiths' reports we
would not have known that Risdon Beazley was on site from 8AM on the
first day: “ ...Jan. 23 ... British steamer English Trader at 4.30
a.m.: am ashore west side of Dartmouth...Dutch tug Witte Zee at 5 3
a.m. GMT: ...proceeding to assistance of steamer English Trader ...
Rotterdam Jan. 23: Witte Zee proceeding from Falmouth on Lloyd's Form;
tug Zwarte Zee proceeding from Douarnenez....” Other vessels
involved include the Tor Bay lifeboat, the tugs Verne and Venture, the
destroyer HMS Witch, destroyer HMS Keppel, HMS No 89 and Admiralty tug
Retort. Captain Doust 'attending', presumably as the Salvage Association's 'Special Officer'
On the 24th in a heavy, and worsening, southerly gale the tugs lost control and “ Vessel
swept broadside to wind and sea bumping heavily on starboard bilge. In
view of situation and seas breaking on board master decided to abandon
vessel. Landed Dartmouth with crew and labour in Brixham lifeboat ...
Zwarte Zee proceeding to shelter”
Also on the 24th “during
a lull in the storm boarded vessel at noon. Navigation bridge smashed
by seas and No. 2 hold now flooded to tide level” On the 25th
the engine room and stokehold were flooded, but after this the salvors
regained the initiative, laiying out ground tackle and raising steam.
On the evening of the 25th Risdon Beazley's salvage vessel
Recovery of Leith arrived after what must have been a hair raising trip
and she laid out further ground tackle and placed pumps on board.
By the 17th February, despite constructing a wooden bulkhead in No2, the salvors had accepted that, in Doust's words, “View starting of fore-well deck plating no reasonable hope of bows being lifted when the remainder of vessel refloated” On Feb. 22 the English Trader was refloated by the Smit tugs Ostzee and Ebro: “minus foreship” - the Witte Zee and the Zwarte Zee returned to their stations.
It
was not until April 2 that the casualty was ready fro tow and the tugs
Crested Cock and Atlantic Cock arrived to tow her to Southampton. On
April 4 these two tugs, plus the Recovery of Leith, left with their
tow. But on the following day the casualty was leaking badly and she
was towed into Portland, leaving again on the morning of the 23rd.
Berthing at Southampton late on the same day.
English
Trader was drydocked on the 27th and on May 5 the Recovery
of Leith returned to Dartmouth “'to remove the bows of steamer
English Trader” On May 29th
the vessel left Southampton in tow of three United Towing tugs, bound
for the Tyne where permanent repairs were to be made. The vessel
was rebuilt from the boiler room forward in 100 days. The English
Trader rescued survivors from the Ben line ship Benvenue, which had
been torpedoed on the 15th May 1941 But in October 1941
English Trader herself was wrecked, most of the crew were rescued by
two lifeboats; the Cromer boat was skippered by the famous
coxswain Henry Blogg.
Presumably
this was Bill Robinson, one of RB's two salvage officers, though
there is no way of proving that. Bill is shown proudly standing on
the pile of ship scrap at Kingswear several months later.
A
Court of Inquiry considered that
the cause of stranding was “Steering jammed hard aport, master
and pilot exonerated”
All
of the photographs were taken by A R Tucker, who produced the book
on the wrecking of the English Trader
A little more about the Beazley Family
Risdon Archibald Beazley was born in the third quarter of 1903 in South Stoneham Registration District of Hampshire and baptised on March 13th 1904. Jasper Gilbert was baptised a year later. Olive May Beazley (baptised February 1907) was Risdon's sister and their parents were Henry Joseph Beazley and Annie May Whale who were married in the same Registration District as already mentioned in the second quarter of 1898. At the time of the baptisms the family lived at Millbrook and their father was a bicycle maker. H.J.B. was the son of Henry Beazley and Susan Brown and in 1881 census the family were living in Weymouth Terrace, Southampton. That is in Western Esplanade and when the outdoor Lido swimming pool was in existence was on the opposite side of the road. In that census H.J.B. was shown as a son, aged 1, born Southampton. His father was shown as aged 40, born in Southampton and was an insurance agent. His mother was shown as aged 45 and born in London. Annie May Whale was a sister of Albert Edward Prince Whale and was baptised 21st May, 1880, at Romsey, her birthplace. Her parents were George Whale and Sarah Brown who were married in 1866 at Wickham. Sarah was the daughter of a farmer/village carrier and born at Stapleford in Wiltshire. George was a son of George Whale and Elizabeth Kemish who were married at Romsey in 1840. Around 1920 the Beazley family lived at Heathfield House in Westend Road, Bitterne, Southampton. In a book titled Memories of Bitterne, by Irene Pilson, which is probably in Southampton Library, there is a story with the title The House Warming at Heathfield House and it deals with the Beazley family. In the late 1930's H.J.B. and wife owned what is now Botleigh Grange Hotel. In her will dated 1959, Annie May has become May Annie and she was living at Chandlers Ford and owned more than twenty houses at Millbrook (Southampton).
Rodney Whale, Andover, July 2007 Plus notes in italics from Christening Records
Where have all the records gone?
When Risdon Beazley Marine was shut down in 1981 the records that had been handed to Risdon Beazley Ulrich Harms in 1980 were sent to Smit's office in Rotterdam. I have a list of the records that were transferred. In addition to the research files there were files on all of the completed jobs, including 42 'non-cargo recovery jobs'. There were also deck logs from the Droxford and papers from the Twyford; plus many drawings and charts. Except for a file on Aircraft Recoveries, only the cargo recovery files seem to have survived, including the Company Secretary's ledger of recoveries and sales etc (this last document is of considerable historical interest). In the late seventies other files that remained at RAB's house in Twyford were offered to RBM, several people went out to Twyford to look at these records and were of the opinion that the papers were of no interest. I have no idea what was there but have always assumed that there were minutes etc plus information about work carried out before 1945. If that was so they would have been of great interest; but the house was cleared when Mrs Mavis Beazley went into a nursing home several years ago – so we shall never know what has been lost. Occasionally we hear of another job, such as the English Trader, but there is no way of knowing how many of the jobs we still don't know about – a study of Lloyd's Weekly Casualty Reports at the Guildhall Library might be rewarding – a job for someone? Roy had the pleasure of a visit from John Butler recently, John told him that Mrs Gotto, one of RAB's daughters, still lives near Cork, he is hoping to meet her to ask about the family.
Doust's 3,500 salvage jobs
In the book and on the back cover we have quoted from a book written by Captain Doust the wartime Deputy Director of Admiralty Salvage. In the book Doust credits RAB with having salvaged 3,500 ships and 3.5 million tons of cargo – this is
undoubtedly an exaggeration!. The quote was put in because that was how Doust saw RAB's achievement he goes on to say, correctly, that it was 'a contribution of vital importance to the war effort beyond the reach of any of the other managers' The best guesstimate that we can make is that the firm completed around 2,000 salvage jobs in total, throughout it's time.
Biggest fleet
RAB was not given to boasting about his achievements but he had been heard to say that he owned the biggest fleet in Britain – but they were mostly on the seabed. Where ever he could he would buy the hulls of the wrecks that he intended to recover cargoes from. He was always careful to have a contract with the underwriter who had paid out on the cargo that he intended to recover.
Occasionally there were problems, as in the Kolkoshnik; this was a Russian ship with a US Lend Lease cargo and all sides made a claim when the cargo was landed in Halifax
Mistakes – there were a few!
There were two McKenzies in Admiralty Salvage, they were the brothers who managed Metal Industries Ltd.
Thomas became Commodore RNVR and was made a Member of the Order of Bath (CB). He was Principal Salvage Officer (North West Europe) His elder brother James was on the staff of the Flag Officer Normandy Landings and then became his brother's deputy, he retired as a Captain RNVR. Had we read Brack's notes properly we would have picked this up. Brack was in the USA from 1943 to1944, he then he became RB's marine superintendent in the Mediterranean.
Extracts from reviews and comments:
“SECRETS OF THE UK'S MOST SUCCESSFUL SALVOR REVEALED... 'Risdon Beazley, Marine
Salvor' is the long-awaited book that, for the very first time, comprehensively opens the doors on the most secretive and successful salvage company that has ever existed in the
British Isles.”
Underwater Contractor International Jan/Feb. 2007
“A LARGELY UNSUNG SALVOR...Every now and then a book appears, with the history of a maritime company, well known by name but not so well known in the operation
of it's business. One such book is
Risdon Beazley, Marine Salvor.” Fairplay, The International Shipping Weekly, 29th March 2007
“FASCINATING TRIBUTE TO SALVAGE COMPANY THAT PLAYED A KEY ROLE DURING THE WAR
.... Roy Martin and Lyle Craigie-Halkett's self-published 150-page volume is cheaply produced but painstakingly researched.”
Nautilus UK Telegraph March 2007
“SHY SALVOR WHO TOOK BACK THE SEA'S TREASURES.....Risdon Beazley was the most secretive but also the most successful
salvage company that ever existed in Great Britain.”
Southern Daily Echo 26th June 2007
“ULTIMATE SALVAGE ...Undoubtedly the secrecy was instilled into the company's modus operandi during its critical contribution to
cargo and vessel recovery throughout WW2, .But the downside of the policy has lead to massive underestimation of the importance of the man and his company.”
Diver July 2007
“RISDON BEAZLEY: MARINE SALVOR ... Their stated aim was to recognise the achievements of the company and its workforce, ...they have certainly succeeded.. Highly recommended.
Ships Monthly, August 2007
“What a wonderful work ...” Mensun Bound, Director of Marine Archeology, Oxford
“Great memories and the best job I have ever had - for fun, comradeship, challenge, excitement and lots of other things...” Graham Mann, Dive Superintendent (former RB diver)
“What a joy the book is , made my journey to work (2 hours on the train) seem like minutes. Well done to put into print an important part of our maritime history” Barry Fraser
“A cracking good read” John Butler, former Senior RB diver and Shipwright
“ About time!” Mike Burrow, inventor of the Jim Suit
