Surrey Technical Specification

This section will, in time, contain the stories of more than 450 merchant ships built or owned in the Hartlepools, and which were lost during the First World War. As an illustration of the truly global nature of shipbuilding, these ships were owned by companies from 22 different countries, including more than 30 sailing under the German flag at the outbreak of war.

Masters: 1881-82 WC Bacon: 1883-85 SR Hill: 1887-88 R Griffiths: 1890 WD Cameron: 1890-91 EE Corner: 1892 W Denning: 1892-93 WD Cameron: 1894-96 C Svendsen: 1897 GE Olsen: 1898-99 J Bil: 1900-02 GE Olsen: 1904-05 CW Mason: 1907 Dalton: 1908-11 Martbishler: 1915-17 Harvey: 1918 TS Jones.

This was the first ship owned & operated by the ATL. Bernard N Baker's obituary in the Baltimore Sun claims that the first vessel in the line was received ‘on consignment’ Surrey was built for the ATL because the Ships Particular Books of WG & Co record her construction in considerable detail-and note that the client as the managing agents J P Hooper & A S Williams for Atlantic Transport Co. Line. Since Bernard N Baker set up a series of one-ship companies to own his vessels (to limit his liabilities in the event of a disaster) there was presumably a Surrey SS Co that technically owned this ship. According to the builder's Ships Particulars Books her accommodation was as follows, Capn & spare aft, Officers & engineers amidships Crew forward Cattlemen below’ In 1882, while Surrey was being built, the managing partnership admitted a third partner & became known as Hooper-Murrell & Williams. Frederick Murrell was well known to Hooper because he had for several years been master of the Hooper. He was also a member of a large seafaring family from West Hartlepool, where Surrey was on the stocks. The Ships Particulars Books kept by WG & Co record details of the ship settled on various dates by Captain F Murrell Frederick, who was living in London at the time, supervised Surrey’s construction on a regular basis. His widow recalled that ‘he frequently spent nights on the train, travelling to & fro from London, & often went up & down in the day’ Other details were determined by one Mr. Jones ‘after coming back from London’ or by Captain Bacon (the ship's first master). Surrey was managed for the ATL by Hooper-Murrell & Williams. Her maiden voyage took her from Barrow to New York with a cargo of iron ore. After two voyages on this service she was chartered to the Royal Netherlands SS Co (KNSM) & fitted with accommodation for over 1,200 steerage passengers. She began sailing on the Amsterdam to New York run on April 2-1882 with 1,258 passengers & made seven voyages on this route, the last commencing on 24 January 1883. She was recorded sailing on one of these voyages in the Brooklyn Daily Standard Union in the summer of 1882-leaving the Royal Netherlands SS Co pier at ‘Watson's Stores on Saturday afternoon with 230 steerage & 27 cabin passengers. Also a very large cargo of grain-lard-oil-tobacco-etc’ she was under the command of Captain W Bacon at the time & was identified as being ‘of the Amsterdam Line.’ This KNSM service was evidently so successful that the rival Holland America Line established its own Rotterdam to New York service & the competition reduced rates ‘to an uneconomically low level.’ To prevent themselves from putting each other out of business, the two lines came to an agreement in 1883 under which the Holland America Line alone would run services from the Netherlands to New York, but using two ships chartered from the KNSM. After her year under charter Surrey was returned to ATL Undaunted by the loss of this business the ATL began a regular transatlantic line of its own in 1883 running between London & Baltimore.

Surreycollided with the German ship Uranuson 4 January 1884 off the Bishop's Rock but both ships were able to return to service after repairs. In February 1886 the New York Times reported on severe gales-noting:

The Cambria Line steamer Surrey, Capt. Murrell-from this port (Philadelphia) for Baltimore, ran ashore below Newcastle during the day & was high & dry to-night. Little news has been obtained from down the river, but it is supposed that many vessels are in the same predicament as the Surrey.

She may have been operating under charter at the time of the gale. Later that year the New York Times shipping intelligence column recorded Surrey leaving London on 24 November 1886, on a voyage for Philadelphia under the command of Captain Murrell. Hamilton Murrell was the son of managing partner Frederick Murrell, & he commanded a string of early ATL ships, among them Missouri, his most famous command. In 1900 she was converted to carry oil in bulk.