Featured this week from the Raffe Colella collection of photographs are some of the ships which visited Fishguard Harbour in the early part of the 20th century.

The first photograph is of the steamship Bessie. She was built for the Joseph Monk Line, of Warrington, in 1901 by Scott and Sons, Bowling. The Bessie was wrecked on January 29th, 1917, four miles W by SW off Douglas Head, when on a voyage from Preston to Castleton, Isle of Man, with a cargo of coal.

Here she is shown stranded on Goodwick beach. The large crowd present are believed to be digging a channel to assist in floating her off on the next high tide. The horse and cart would have been used to carry the recovered sand away from the propeller and rudder.

The date of this incident is not known, but they would have succeeded in the task.

The second photograph is of the Porteur, official number 108292. She was built in Holland in 1884 - length 111 feet six inches - with a gross tonnage of 244. She was re-registered in London in 1884 by her new owners, Fishguard & Rosslare Railways and Harbour Company.

The Porteur was a dredging vessel and was used extensively to create a deep channel to allow access to the Harbour jetty.

The third photograph is a mystery. This shows the crew members of the Harbinger. Records at the Welsh Maritime Museum suggest two intriguing possibilities. She could be a ship of 109 gross tonnage built in 1901 at Shelbourne, Nova Scotia, and owned by the Harbinger Steam Ship Company, of Amherst, Nova Scotia, or she could be one built in Greenock in 1876 and owned by J. Lenlund, of Rowma, Russia.

There are more questions than answers. What was she doing in Fishguard Harbour? What made the occasion so special for the photograph to have been taken?

Further research is being undertaken, but should any reader have relevant information then please phone 01348 837786.

The last photograph is a graphic view of how they used to offload cargoes from the small sailing vessels that plied their trade around the Pembrokeshire beaches. This vessel seems to have been carrying a cargo of culm, and the hard physical effort needed to transfer this material into the waiting carts can only be imagined. Time was of the essence - there was only a limited period between tides to complete the task. The narrow cart wheels indicate that Goodwick beach sand was hard enough for a fully laden cart to move without sinking.

* Thanks are extended to Raffe Colella for the loan of these photographs from his collection, and special thanks to Dr David Jenkins, of the Welsh Maritime Museum, for all his help.

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The steamship Bessie.