Volume Thirteen - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - 'Ellenbank' - and her visit to Penarth Dock in 1885 . . . .

Ritson’s yard launched its first iron ship, the 'Ellenbank,' broadside into the River Ellen. The vessel was named after Robert Ritson's house and she sailed from Maryport on 31st October 1885 bound for Penarth Dock [c.350 nautical miles] where she loaded a cargo of coal, then, according to the Western Mail [164] [361] sailed on the 23rd of November 1885 down the Bristol Channel and out across the Atlantic Ocean [c.7,200 nautical miles], facing the 'Roaring Forties' they navigated 'Drake's Passage' around the tip of Cape Horn [c.500 nautical miles] thus entering the Pacific Ocean and bound for San Francisco [c.6,000 nautical miles], where she arrived 163 days later. [The Panama Canal opened during 1914, hence, the voyage of some 14,000 nautical miles around Cape Horn was necessary!]

1888 - Launch of the 'Kinkora' of 1,999 tons in 1888 broadside into the River Ellen from Ritson's Wharf, Maryport. The vessel was of larger dimensions than those of the 'Ellenbank' being 1,426 tons net register launched in the same manner three years earlier.

During 1889 the ownership of the 'Ellenbank' passed to McDiarmid Greenshields & Company of Liverpool and her end came following her departure during October 1891 from Padang, Sumatra, bound for Cheribon (Cirebon), Java. In mid November reports were received at Cape Rada in the Sunda Strait that there was 7 feet of water in her hold and her back was broken. The ship was later officially declared a total loss following a Marine Court of Inquiry in Singapore. In January 1892 a newspaper named NRC- Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant reported : 'Batavia [capital of the Dutch East Indies, otherwise Jakarta, Indonesia], 9 December. The wreck and inventory of the ship Ellenbank, which ran aground at Cape Rada, have been sold for NLG (Dutch Guilders) 1,076. This amount will be sufficient to cover the costs incurred.'

1885 - The sailing ship 'Ellenbank' showing a Longitudinal Section & Deck Plan dated 17th January 1884 of the vessel together with a Iron Ship Survey Report for Ellenbank, 30th October 1885.