Colin's Diary

Who Are They?

Launch of MV Asturias, 1925, Belfast [Source: NY Public Library Collection]

The Asturias was broken up in September 1957. Some of the teak from the ship was made into garden furniture by shipbreakers Hughes and Bolckow, a lot of which still exists in the UK.

Thank you to reader Kate Cairns, whose family acquired a set of table and chairs, and who has kindly sent some photos of the furniture which she is restoring. The underside of the table bears the plaque below. She is unsure how they came into her family's possessions, but her great-grandfather owned a shipping company in Leith, Edinburgh.

 

Plate from underside of garden table
Supplied by Matt Cobb, UK

Plate from the back of a garden bench in
Dunbar, Scotland
Supplied by Charis Tyndall