George, Cory's colliers sailed from all of the North East ports including Blyth, so photos and comments are spread all over this forum. I have listed a number of their ships which sailed in the 1950s through the 1960s which may be of interest. Use the search button above and search in turn for: Corbank Corbeach Corbrae Corfield Cormain Cormead Cormist Cormoat Cormount Corsea Corsound Corstream I hope this helps.
Dad certainly sailed on Cormead - in fact I recall going on the ship when I was about 12 years old (Blyth - 50's) Other Cory ship names are familiar and he was on one or two of the others. I'm sure one of them was Corfen which was quite old at the time. I think it had a drawing on board showing its gun mountings fore and aft. I would really like to know which ships he sailed on during WW2. I'm sure he was at Dunkirk but he never talked about it. He may have been on a Cory ship - but it may have been on any other coasting collier. That's what I believe he did during the war. He did not receive any medals. His reward was to survive! He did talk about a ship he was on getting a bomb through its hold while it was in drydock I think in South Shields - perhaps Cowans. He did joke that it was safer being at sea! Anyone know anything about this?
Nice one. I went onto the boat with Dad as a little lad aged about 12. Loved it , but what mess when loading coal! I think I went with him to his ships at Blythe, Dunstan, and definitely Seaham Harbour. Got a trip out on the Pilot boat and was sea sick for the first and only time in my life (aged 12)!
I've looked at the list of Dunkirk evacuation ships and the only one I can see that might rank as an East Coast collier is Constantine's LEVENWOOD which landed 51 troops at Dover on 01/06/1940. There are other coasters from UK companies of course. Can't see any Cory that was there. You would have to have his Discharge Books to trace which ships he was on.
World Ship Society published a pamphlet in the early 1960s, only about 8 pages giving brief company history and ship's details, I have it somewhere if you would like a scan. Also there is Norman Middlemiss's Black Diamonds book which is a starting point if nothing else. It covers the leading collier companies including Cory's, who's funnel was a black diamond which was coal's nickname Regards Graham