S.S. Glenfruin at sea

The iron screw steamer Glenfruin was built for the Glen Line by the London & Glasgow Shipbuilding Co. on the Clyde in 1880. Registered at 2,985 tons gross (1,936 net), she measured 360 feet in length with a 43½ foot beam and could steam at 13½ knots. With accommodation for only about 50 First class passengers, she was primarily a cargo carrier yet, despite this, she was the first ship to enter Tilbury Dock when it opened on 17th April 1886 and, in fact, carried the 'official party' for the ceremony. In May 1897 she was sold to McIlwraith, McEacharn Ltd. for their coastal Australian service and renamed Kalgoolie before she left London. On arrival at Melbourne, she was given extensive new saloon and dormitory passenger accommodation and, by the end of the year, was running scheduled services from Melbourne - Sydney and thence to Freemantle on the so-called 'Gold Rush' run. Stranded at Singapore in 1910 and relegated to a coal hulk, she was rescued, re-engined and returned to sea in 1917 - as Glenfruin again - due to the chronic wartime shortage of tonnage. Now perfectly seaworthy again, she was renamed Hong Hwa in 1918 and then settled down on the route from Singapore - Japan via Hong Kong where she remained until sold for scrapping in 1933.