MV Ardingly

History
United Kingdom
Name:	MV Ardingly
Operator:	Stephenson Clarke Shipping,[1] Newcastle Upon Tyne
Builder:	SP Austin & Son Ltd,[2] Southwick, Sunderland
Yard number:	406[2]
Completed:	1951[1]
Acquired:	1951[1]
Out of service:	1971[1]
Fate:	Sold
United Kingdom
Name:	MV Ballyrobert[1]
Operator:	John Kelly,[3] Belfast
Acquired:	1971[3]
Out of service:	1977[3]
Fate:	Sold
Cyprus[1]
Name:	MV Lucky Trader[1]
Acquired:	1977[1]
Out of service:	1982[1]
Fate:	Scrapped at Piraeus, Greece, 1982[1]
General characteristics
Class and type:	Coaster
Tonnage:	1,436 long tons (1,608 short tons; 1,459 t) gross;[2] 1,960 long tons (2,200 short tons; 1,990 t) deadweight[2]
Length:	240 ft 0 in (73.15 m)
Beam:	36 ft 4 in (11.07 m)
Draught:	20 ft 0 in (6.10 m)
Capacity:	1,860 long tons (2,080 short tons; 1,890 t)[2]

MV Ardingly was a coaster built in 1951 as a collier for Stephenson Clarke Shipping.^[1] She carried coal from North East England to ports in Southern England until this trade declined early in the 1960s.^[1] Stephenson Clarke then transferred her to carrying bulk cargoes including limestone and grain.^[1]

Many Stephenson Clarke ships were named after places in South East England.^[2] MV Ardingly may have been so named because one Stephenson Clarke director, Mr. P.G. Wallace, had been a pupil at Ardingly College in 1909.^[1]

In 1971 Stephenson Clarke sold her and a sister ship, MV Steyning, to John Kelly^[3] in Northern Ireland. Kelly renamed her MV Ballyrobert^[1] after the village of Ballyrobert in County Antrim.

In 1977 Kelly sold her to a Cypriot operator who renamed her MV Lucky Trader.^[1] She was sold for scrap and broken up in Piraeus near Athens 1982.^[1]

References