Commemorative Newsletter 1920
Prior to 1914, most of the Smiths ships were largely foreign going colliers, taking coal out of the South Wales ports to far distant ports, often purely to stockpiles of fuel for the world's tonnage. World War One saw a bigger emphasis on grain carrying and by the time the 1920's were reached, there was an even greater diversification in commodities carried.
At the end of 1920, the company, and all of its associate companies, had a total of 29 ships, trading worldwide. Significantly, the vast majority of them made at least one call to New York. Using an assortment of resources, it has been possible to reproduce a “Newsletter”, based upon the model that Devonshire House commenced in 1970. We think this quite appropriate for 90 years on, and similarly so, 40 years on since the Newsletters began in our own time.
If you click on “Commemorative Newsletter” then a .pdf file will be downloaded. You will need Acrobat Reader version 7+ to be installed on your computer, but most people already have this.
It may take a while to download depending on the speed of your internet connection.
NOTE. There is an item in the Commemorative Newsletter, describing the loss of the ss Bradboyne. Details for this item were compiled from several contemporary sources. These sources name the Master of the rescue vessel, ss Oxonian, as Captain John Wilkinson. In fact, the Master was Captain John Parry. This has been pointed out to us by his grandson, Nigel Parry, and a full description of the rescue can be found on the Forum thread, “Commemorative Newsletter”, posting dated 7th November 2011. MikeJones.