Lot Essay
The steel screw cargo steamer Camerata was built for the Tunisian Steam Navigation Company by W. Gray & Co. at West Hartlepool in 1910. Registered at 3,723 tons gross (2,361 net), she measured 350 feet in length with a 50 foot beam and was engined by the Central Marine Engine Works, also of West Hartlepool. Pressed into service during the Great War, she was attacked by an enemy submarine in the Mediterranean on 2nd May 1917 whilst on passage from Avonmouth to Alexandria carrying military stores. Fortunately she was only 9 miles offshore and her master managed to beach her near Jidjelli (Algeria) from where she was subsequently salvaged, repaired and put back to work. Surviving the War, her original owners kept her until 1929 when she was sold to Russell-Turners who re-christened her Ronturn. Resold again in 1934, this time changing her name to Everards, Lloyd's Register of 1938-39 reports that she was 'seized during Spanish hostilities' - presumably the Spanish Civil War - after which she was turned over to the Spanish Government. Renamed Castillo Fuensaldana, she remained in Spanish hands after the Second World War and became the property of Empresa Nacional 'Eleano' S.A. who kept her in service until 1958 when she disappears from record, presumably scrapped.