Answers are being sought over the missing history of a once well-known Porthmadog ship, which may have played a secret role in wartime Britain. An appeal has gone out for help to “fill in the gaps” over what happened to the SS Florence Cooke – or ‘the Florrie‘, as she was affectionately known – from May to October 1944.
The ship carried explosives and munitions, and was one of the few powered ships associated with the port of Porthmadog. The Florrie is believed to have taken part in various special wartime missions. She was involved in D-day in June 1944, according to Porthmadog Maritime Museum, although not much is known about her role, says museum volunteer Captain Dave Creamer.
The history of the Florrie
Captain Creamer, from Penrhyndeudraeth, has been researching the vessel. He is also the chair of the North Wales branch of the Merchant Navy Association. His investigations came about amid a recent appeal to find North Wales Merchant Navy veterans who took part in Operation Neptune – also known as the D-day or Normandy Landings.
The Llandudno-based branch hopes to invite Merchant Navy veterans who took part in D-day (or their families) to a special service at Llandudno War Memorial on Sunday 1 September. Creamer says he hit “a stumbling block” while researching North Wales ships and crew and looking deeper into the history of the Florrie.
The Florrie belonged to Cookes Explosives Ltd. The firm was based in the North East of England but developed a depot at Penrhyndeudraeth. (That decommissioned site is now known as the Gwaith Powdwr nature reserve). The ship was originally used to transport explosives and raw materials for mines and quarries, but later carried shells and ammunition.
The Porthmadog Maritime Museum includes a small feature about the Florrie. It also keeps a file of related photographs and newspaper articles, and has historical information about the ship on its website. It describes how the ship was registered in Sunderland for all of her life, but was the last trader to claim Porthmadog as her home port. She was built at Hepples yard in South Shields to the order of Cookes Explosives.
Missing history
The museum website states: “Their offices and distribution depot, from where explosives were sent to the surrounding coal mines, was at Maiden Law, Co Durham. The increased demand for explosives during the first world war forced the company to look for a quiet site to build a new factory and Penrhyndeudraeth, near Porthmadog, was chosen.”
“[The Florrie] started trading in 1923. Her cargoes were raw material to Porthmadog for the manufacture of the explosives, then the finished product was carried to the Tyne. She had a hinged mast and funnel which could be lowered to allow passage up the river to Newburn. The explosives were then taken by lorry to Cookes’ depot.”
“Explosives and detonators were delivered to other ports in Cornwall and Scotland. The return cargo was usually household coal, although she did sometimes wander further afield in the coastal trade. There was some passenger accommodation intended for company personnel, though the Captain could allow others to travel onboard.”
“She was requisitioned by the Admiralty in 1939 and used as an ammunition ship, first at Milford Haven and later at Scapa Flow. She took part in the Normandy landings and was released from the Navy in 1945. The Florrie continued on the explosives run until 1959, when it was decided that road transport was more efficient. She was sold to a Dutch shipbreaker, though there is a tantalising story of her being seen, minus machinery and accommodation, in use as a dumb barge, trading on the inland waterways.”
But according to Creamer, details of what happened to the Florrie between May and October 1944 are missing. After researching archives in Caernarfon and Dolgellau, he was unable to find any records of the ship between those dates – the period which covers D-day, 8 June 1944.
Finding the Florrie
Creamer is appealing for information from anyone who knows anything – crew who may have served aboard the ship, or anyone who had family aboard and may have memories of the Florrie. It’s not known whether records from that period are classified, possibly relating to the ship’s work during the second world war, or are just missing or lost.
According to Creamer, there are newspaper clippings in the museum linking the ship to the D-day landings. Operation Neptune, as it was codenamed, was the largest seaborne invasion in history. It started with the liberation of France, then the rest of western Europe, and laid the foundations for the Allied victory on the western front.
“Lots of people in the Porthmadog area and beyond still have fond memories of the Florrie. She was a very well known ship in her heyday. But it would appear that there is very little information about her in local records, if any at all, from May to October 1944, which is a puzzle.”
“I know the Florrie was deployed in the ‘special services’ group for D-day but, interestingly, there is no mention of her in any of the books about the ships involved. Newspaper cuttings in possession of the Porthmadog Maritime Museum indicate that the Florrie was supplying ammunition to two naval monitors bombarding the French coast during the landings.”
Can you help?
Creamer says: “I went down to Caernarfon and Dolgellau archives. I spent an hour and a half looking at the ship’s overtime records and chandler’s orders, receipts, and payments, the master’s accounts of wages. But everything stops in May 1944, and doesn’t appear to resume until October 1944. Either those records were never kept – which I can’t imagine – or they may have been locked away and won’t be released until an official period of time has passed. We just don’t know, we hit a brick wall.”
“A cutting in the museum places her there [on D-day], as a special services ship. I think it’s because she was a ‘special’ ship – handling explosives, ammunition? It’s very strange.”
“We’d love to find out more. If anyone can help fill in the gaps or has memories of the ship, please get in touch! If anyone can help us trace her crew or their families, we’d like to invite them to our service of commemoration in Llandudno in September.”
Creamer added that the museum is always looking for volunteers. Anyone who can help in any way, whether there or regarding the history of the Florrie, please contact the Porthmadog Maritime Museum.
