Fulgens SS

Above ... The Fulgens bell. Recovered and reported to the Receiver of Wreck by Peter Huson in the early 1980's

Researched and written by Paul Hennessey

Fulgens SS

Type ... Cargo /Number of holds 4 / Raised quarter deck / plumb bow /counter stern / engines aft / bridge midships.

Position ...  52 49' 05, 5 N / 01 36'22, 3 E
Built ... 1912
Official number ... 135155
Builder ... Wood, Skinner & Co Ltd
Dimensions ... 305.4 x 42.3 x 19.1 feet / Quarter deck 178 feet / Forecastle 30 feet
Tonnage ... 2512 Gross
Yard ... Bill Quay
Yard number ... 179
Engine ... 3 cylinder triple expansion x1 screw / Cylinders 22, 36, 60 x42 inch stroke
Propeller ... Diameter 15 feet 9 inches / Pitch 14 feet 9 inches / Blades 4
Power ... 272 nhp
Engine builder ... John Dickinson & Sons, Sunderland
Boilers ... x2 Scotch type single ended boilers / x6 corrugated furnaces in total
Donkey boiler ... No
Double bottom ... Yes
Construction ... Steel
Lost ... 1/08/1915
Cause ... Torpedo
Owners at time of loss ... Gas Light & Coke Company Limited
Depth ... 15mtrs

Ownership history ... Built in 1912 for the Gas Light & Coke Company. The company retained ownership for the duration of the Fulgens short career, this being just short of three years until the time of her loss.

Circumstances of loss .... Torpedoed by UB10 (German U Boat) on 1st August 1915 whilst on passage from Hartlepool to London with a cargo of coal. All crew saved.
Whilst on route to London with a cargo of coal, a torpedo wake was spotted off to the port side some 30 yards away. The order was given to turn hard to port, with no time for the vessel to respond the torpedo hit the Fulgens on her port side. With the vessel starting to list heavily to port the order was given to abandon ship.  At 9.05 am  all the crew were safely away in the starboard lifeboat. At 10 am the Fulgens sank.
The crew were soon picked up by the Sea Palling lifeboat as they rowed the Fulgens Lifeboat  towards the land. Once picked up the Sea Palling Lifeboat took the crew back into Sea Palling.

During August 1915, in addition to sinking the Fulgens, UB10 also torpedoed the Rosalie which is now to be found in the shallows off Weyboune beach in North Norfolk.

In all UB10  had 15 kills in August 1915,  13 of these being fishing vesels that were stopped and sunk. In all UB10 went on 115 patrols and sank 37 vessels, this totaling some 23,614 tons.  UB10 was scuttled off the Flanders coast on the 5th October  1918 during the German evacuation of Belgium.


UKHO
1915 ... Reported as 1 mile off Sea Palling.
1956 ... Swept depth over wreck 37 feet.
1983 ... Least depth 11.8 mtrs in a general depth of 14.5 mtrs / no scour / height 3 mtrs / length 100 mtrs / width 30 mtrs / broken up.

Below ...  Double bottom as incorporated in the Fulgens hull design. A double bottom is a method of construction where the bottom of the ship has two separate layers of watertight hull floor. The outer layer forms the outer hull and the inner layer, ie the floor forms a watertight barrier should the outer hull be breached. Up until 2007, double bottomed vessels were allowed to utilise their DB's for fuel storage. In addition the DB can also be used for the storage of ballast water.

Left ... basic working of a triple expansion engine as fitted in the Fulgens. Red, steam from the boilers enters the high pressure cylinder (Hp),  yellow, steam from the Hp cylinder enters the intermediate pressure cylinder (Ip), blue, steam from the Ip cylinder enters the low pressure cylinder (Lp) from here the low pressure steam leaves the engine and is fed into a surface condenser. In the condenser, the steam is cooled and returned to its liquid state as it meets the cold water tubes within the condenser. From here the water is fed back into the boiler for re-use. To the left of each con rod can be seen the valve gear, this opening and shutting the cylinder valves. The type of valve gear most favoured at the time was the Stephensons valve gear, as featured in the diagram (note the eccentrics on the crank).

John Dickinson & Sons of Sunderland, builders of the Fulgens engine ..... The company was formed in 1852 by John Dickinson as a engine repair business at the Palmer Hill Engine Works in Sunderland and then went on to become engine and boiler makers. In 1946 the Palmers Hill yard was sold to William Doxford & Sons.

Wood, Skinner & Co Ltd, builders of the Fulgens ....  Formed in 1883 by James Skinner and William Wood at Bill Quay. Both Skinner and Wood had gained a great deal of experience working for other well-known shipbuilders. In 1897 the company was incorporated as a limited company and in 1914 the company was listed as shipbuilders and repairers at Bill Quay.


Wood, Skinner & Co went into liquidation in 1925.

Gas Light & Coke Company, owners of the Fulgens at the time of her loss. The company was set up in 1812 by Frederick Winsor. It was the first company designed to provide gas and coal to London, in turn running the first gas works in the United Kingdom, this also being the worlds first gas works designed for public usage. Their main offices were in Horseferry Road in London, and their first gas works were located in Great Peter Street in London. To the left is a commemorative plaque in Great Peter Street.

Below ... Corrugated furnace as fitted in the Fulgens boilers

The Fulgens Today (2022)
Very broken due to dispersal. If there is one wreck that truely offers the opportunity to witness the full effect of dispersal, the Fulgens  has to be at the top of the list. Due to her depth at only 15mtrs I should have imagined she would have been very heavily dispersed in order to reduce her risk to navigation. Evidence of this can be seen throughout the site, as for the most part she is no more than a mass jumble of twisted plates and beams. Despite the effects of dispersal, one of her boilers is still intact,  however the second boiler is completely smashed to pieces with x3 of its corrugated furnaces laying close to the intact boiler. Fire tubes from the smashed boiler lay scattered around what would have been the Fulgens engine and boiler room.  There is no sign of her triple expansion engine, this being presumed to  have been destroyed during dispersal.  Navigation of the site can be very confusing as there is no clear line through the wreck, this being due to the effects of heavy dispersal, this in turn spreading the shattered remains of the Fulgens throughout the surrounding seabed . If conditions do not allow anything further off shore, the Fulgens makes for a good plan B at less than two miles off shore. 
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