This F.W. Spry postcard shows SS Pansy in the right foreground in dazzle camouflage, probably photographed just after the end of WW1. SS Pansy was a 175ft steel steam coaster weighing 555 gross tons, built in 1898 by Grangemouth Dockyard for Richard Hughes of Liverpool.

In peacetime she was employed to carry bulk cargoes to the north west, principally china clay from Fowey to Liverpool/Runcorn for carriage by inland water transport to the potteries. During WW1 she was part of a regular convoy from Littlehampton to French ports with war supplies including munitions. Cargo ships were loaded at the Railway Wharf and the escort probably consisted of the armed drifters and motor launches based in Littlehampton at this time. 

She was painted by the ‘Pierhead Painter’, Reuben Chappel, in her peacetime guise and included in Rupert Jones' book of the artist's pictures published in 2006. 

Technical Data

The vessels behind SS Pansy include PD25 Cretacre with her stern to the camera. She was from a class of ferro-concrete barges built as military transporters in WW1, described in detail in The Engineer on 15th November 1918.