By L.N.R.S. Member Ian Duckett
Some years ago, walking round the Glasson Dock area near Lancaster, the Silver River, a small coaster, was observed loading a general cargo at the West Quay, as we set out for a walk to Cockersands Abbey.
It was a scene that would have been commonplace around the UK 50 years ago but, sadly, even then a very rare sight. Even better, a few hours later, when we arrived back at the dock at the end of our walk, the Silver River was just about to sail and we watched her departure.
By now she was loaded with bagged cement or fertilizer in the hold and, on deck, various machinery and two 20ft containers. She was bound for Ramsey IOM, her home port.
Owned by Mezeron Freight Services of Ramsey, she operated perhaps as the last coastal cargo liner service in the Irish Sea, operating regular voyages between Ramsey, Belfast and Glasson Dock.
She was built in Germany, as the Seacon, by Schiffswerft Schloemer and entered service in 1968. Of 277 GRT and 373 DWT, she measures 44.7m x 7.2m with a draft of 2.1 m and her service speed is 9 knots.
Now fast forward some years and, with the urgent need for larger tonnage, Mezeron offered her for sale with Dutch brokerage Dick van der Kamp Shipsales B.V. and so she left Ramsey for the last time on 12th November 2025 and arrived at her new home port of Büsum on the 19th November.
You may be happy to know that (now in her 58th year) she is successfully trading as Knudshoern in the North Sea for the Schleswig-Holstein, Mildstedt–based company NF Seefracht GmbH under the registered ownership of subsidiary NF-Cargo GmbH.
She arrived at Esbjerg, Denmark on 20 February, 2026 but no further sailings have been reported since then. She was still at Esbjerg’s Fiskerihavnen 6. Bassin on 11 April.
Let us hope this is not an ominous sign and that she keeps trading for many years to come!
