The April mystery ship is the collier Cliff Quay, which was named after the coal-fired power station located in Ipswich, Suffolk (which was decommissioned in 1985). The ship was built by William Pickersgill, Sunderland (yard no.319) for the British Electrical Authority, London.Completed in June 1950, she was of 3,357 tons gross, 1,763 tons net, measured 339ft by 46ft by 20ft, and she was fitted with a three-cylinder steam triple expansion engine built by the North Eastern Marine Eng Co (1938) Ltd Sunderland.
In 1954 her owners became the Central Electricity Authority and in 1958 she was transferred to the Central Electricity Generating Board, without a change of name.
She was withdrawn from service in 1983, by when she had served for 33 years for one owner on the north-east collier route to the Thames and other power stations along the south and east coast.
Eddie Wipperman, Wickford, Essex
The location in the photo is her namesake, i.e. a wharf at Ipswich which served the Cliff Quay Power Station. Cliff Quay operated on the east coast of England between the Tyne and the Thames, with Blyth one of her regular ports of call to load coal for Ipswich. She arrived in Manchester late in 1983 for scrapping by Stretford Shipbreakers Ltd.
Ewen McGee, Glasgow
