Strathcona II (Grenfell)

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shipstamps
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Strathcona II (Grenfell)

Post by shipstamps » Wed Sep 24, 2008 1:11 pm



To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Sir Wilfred Grenfell, British sailor, author and medical missionary who founded a series of hospitals, nursing stations and orphanages along the New¬foundland and Labrador coasts, the Canadian Post Office, on June 9th 1965, issued a 5 cents stamp depicting Sir Wilfred at the wheel of his hospital ship Strathcona II.
Grenfell was born at Parkgate, Cheshire, in 1865. He was educated at Oxford and London Hospital and in 1889 he joined the Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen which fitted out a hospital ship serving fishermen in the North Atlantic trade. He went to the coast of Labrador in 1892 and spent the rest of his life serving its inhabitants. He cruised the coast each year in his hospital ship, and, in 1912, he founded the King George V Seamen's Institute in St. John's, N.F.
His first hospital ship, Strathcona, was built at Dartmouth in 1899 and was presented to the Grenfell Mission to Labrador through the munificence of Lord Strathcona. This steel-hulled ship, fitted with every modern appliance, steamed out to Labrador in 1900. She was in service for 23 years, until lost in a gale off Cape Bonavista in 1923.
To replace her Sir Wilfred bought a second-hand vessel named the Einna. A steel auxiliary schooner, she was built by Ramage and Ferguson, at Leith, and was launched as the Runa. Her gross tonnage was 80, with a length of 85 ft. 4 in., a beam of 16 ft. 1 in. and draft of 9 ft. 2 in. Some critics considered her so small that Grenfell would never be able to hire a professional crew of sailors to take her across the Atlantic. They were true prophets, but the problem was solved by volunteers.
Grenfell believed she was the smallest steamship to cross the Atlantic. When leaving Southampton in June 1923, he could not resist the whimsical temptation, as a fellow commander of a trans-Atlantic steamship, of calling on the master of the Berengaria and offering to carry any messages across the sea for him. When the Cunard captain had gazed away down over his rail at the mosquito craft below, he countered by requesting the privilege of taking the Strathcona II (as Grenfell had renamed the Einna) in davits for the westward voyage and dropping her off on the other side.The sturdy little Strathcona II went by way of Vigo and the Azores to Newfoundland, and arrived in St. John's with 5 tons of coal to spare.
Sir Wilfred retired from active work in 1935, but continued to work to raise funds for his welfare projects in Newfoundland and Labrador. He wrote a score of books, mostly on maritime subjects, and was made C.M.G.in 1906 and K.C.M.G. in 1927. The stamp itself illustrates Sir Wilfred at the height of his humanitarian activities, and is the second to honour him, Newfoundland having issued a 5 cents stamp in 1941 also depicting the medical missionary on board the Strathcona II, where he is shown looking over the bridge rail at the schooner Maraval. Unfortunately, neither stamp shows much of the Strathcona 11 the emphasis of course being on the man, not his ship.
Canada SG? Sea Breezes 9/65

aukepalmhof
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Re: Strathcona II (Grenfell)

Post by aukepalmhof » Tue Jan 03, 2017 8:53 pm

She was also launched as the EINNA in 1904.
1910 She was sold and renamed RUNA.
Hired during World War I by the British Admiralty from 18 July 1918 till 14 May 1919.
1919 Sold to J Gale & Co., Liverpool.
1920 Sold to H.C. Hutchinson, London.
When she was again renamed in EINNA I could not find.
1925 Sold to Dr. Grenfell to use her as a hospital ship in Newfoundland and Labrador, the yacht was bought with money donated by the Hudson Bay Company. Renamed in STRATHCONA II
She made the voyage from England to Newfoundland via Vigo and the Azores.
She was in service as a hospital ship for the mission in Newfoundland and Labrador till 1943 when she was sold.
Could not find what her fate was.
The photo showed above is not the mission ship STRATHCONA II but a much larger cargo vessel.

I found her on a website of the Hudson Bay Company,

Newfoundland 1941 5c sg275, scott252
Attachments
1941 maraval.jpg
strathcona-1909.jpg

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