Situated on the south coast of Cornwall Looe enjoyed a modest history as a trading port until 1961 and is perhaps better known as a picturesque tourist own with a fleet of inshore fishing vessels. Looe’s history as a commercial trading port stretches back hundreds of years: this article concentrates of the twilight years. Until 1935 Looe dealt with sailing coasters in the main although increasingly such coasters were powered by auxiliary engines. Thereafter port records show a significant increase in both Dutch and British-flagged coasters. For example, in the summer of 1935 the Delfzyl coaster Remi (160grt/27) arrived with coals from Goole.
Up to the outbreak of World War 2 the first of many Everard coasters arrived, often with cement cargoes, usually loaded on the Thames. Four Everard coasters were employed in the cement trade to Looe between 1937 and 1939: Annuity (140grt/1917), Aqueity (300grt/34), Assurity (163grt/1921) and Actuality (310grt/33). Aqueity and Actuality were both sunk by mines just a few years later, in December 1940, together with ten other Everard coasters which were sunk in 1940.
Another vessel to arrive at Looe with cement was the steam coaster Maralie (341grt/1904) owned locally at Portreath by A C Reynolds. Maralie arrived in April 1937, her arrival not having been advised to the harbourmaster, whereupon the vessel took the ground fore and aft resulting in severe damage to plating. The owners of Maralie claimed a considerable sum – £2958 – by way of damages but such were the risks of challenging the claim in litigation that the Harbour Commissioners chose to settle out of court: a debt that haunted the Harbour Commissioners for many years thereafter.
The year 1939 saw both coal and cement imports to Looe. Among the vessels arriving with coal were the Ymuiden-registered motor ship Reiger (168grt/20) and the auxiliary steel ketch Mary Eliezer (95grt/1904. Cement imports arrived in various coasters such as the steel auxiliary schooner Result (122grt/1893), the Lady Sheila (216grt/35) and the Groningen coaster Afiena (164grt/1919). The Lady Sheila arrived in December 1939 and there continued to be a limited trade to the port in the first full half of the year of the war, 1940. Cement was shipped again with Result and Afiena among other vessels, including Lady Sophia (232grt/38) and the steel auxiliary schooner Eilian (140grt/1908), a vessel that was first seen at Looe in 1912 when she ran coal to the port from Runcorn. There were far fewer coal shipments at this time in the Mary Eliezer and the wooden auxiliary schooner Mary Miller ((119grt/1881), possibly because of wartime shortages. After Afiena had discharged her cement cargo in July 1940, commercial shipping to the port ceased for the duration of the war.
It was another fourteen years before commercial shipping resumed in the port with the arrival of the motor ship Fairy (207grt/30) in March 1954 when she arrived with cement from London; thereafter she appeared again in May and July with further cement cargoes. Later in 1954 the Everard coasters Capacity (309grt/47) and Aridity (335grt/31) berthed, again with cement cargoes from the Thames.
There were nine arrivals in 1955, with three exceptions (timber) all with cement cargoes and featuring three Everard coasters: Antiquity (311grt/33) (three visits), Fred Everard (228grt/26) (a picture of Fred Everard alongside her berth is to be found on p. 83 of Robert Simper’s book The Lugger Coast (Creekside Publishing, 2003) and Fortunity (411/44). Foreign tonnage brought timber to the port, one notable arrival from Sweden being the Groningen -registered coaster Westerschelde (363grt/48). The same combination of cement and some timber continued in 1956 with seven arrivals dominated again by Everard coasters. One of two timber cargoes arrived in the Rotterdam-registered coaster Eminent (336grt/40) while cement arrived in Aridity, Festivity (411grt/44) (two visits), Celebrity (309grt/47) and Annuity (140grt/1917).
Eight arrivals are recorded in 1957, with cement again the standard cargo, though three timber cargoes arrived in foreign-flagged coasters including Mutua Fides (302grt/49). The Fairy arrived in June while other arrivals included Annuity (two visits), Celebrity and City (352grt/45). Yet more cement arrived in 1958 in Everard coasters: the steel auxiliary sailing barge Will Everard (189grt/25) City (two visits), Annuity, Aridity and Activity (358grt/31).
Of the eight arrivals in 1958 two cargoes were of timber, one of which arrived in October, in the relatively new Groningen-registered coaster Forel (350grt/56)). In the following year of 1959 there were fourteen coasters recorded, eight of which were again bringing cement cargoes, the remainder being timber cargoes arriving in foreign-flagged vessels such as the Dutch Meeuw (352grt/36). Everard was again well in evidence with Antiquity (three visits), Comity (202grt/48) (two visits), City and Formality (409grt/44)
The penultimate year of commercial trade at Looe, 1960, saw the same mix of cement and timber discharged, again largely consigned to local builders merchants, F J Reeves, Ltd. Everard vessels in port were Comity, Aridity, Capacity and Fortunity. Other cement cargoes arrived in the Lady Sonia (199grt/29), Camroux I (324grt/34) and the Servic (162grt/1904), a motor barge originally owned by E J and W Goldsmith but in the fleet of the London and Rochester Trading Company by the time she was calling at Looe.
The final year of commercial trading in 1961 was again dominated by cement though there was one timber cargo. There were ten cement cargoes, one discharged from the Servic, the remainder from Everard’s Comity. With the arrival of Servic on 28 August 1961 there came to an end a long seaborne trade to this small port. Coal cargoes effectively ceased prior to World War 2, in part because the rail link to Looe would increasingly satisfy local demand both domestically and for the purpose of fuelling the local gas works.
The author gratefully acknowledges the assistance of Mike Soady (Looe Harbour Commissioner) and Tina Hicks (Looe Harbour Master) in the preparation of this article.
Neil Hawke
Originally published in Coastal Shipping Issue 145, Vol. 26, No. 1, Feb 2019. Thanks to Iain McCall for permission to reproduce the article.