Vera of Brantevik
The brig Vera was one of the larger craft to visit Littlehampton, and Frank Spry captured her in several photographs between 1908 and 1914. Vera was registered at Brantevik and must have been one of the largest vessels operating from there, as the harbour is little more than a couple of breakwaters. The cargo delivered to Littlehampton was probably timber, and ships from the Baltic states regularly arrived at the wharf here.
This view is from the side and does justice to her dimensions and rig. Note the crew members posing casually halfway up the mast.
Technical Data
In another card, she is in the background behind Jumna. The enlarged section enlarged detail shows her elaborate stern.
Vera eventually became another WW1 loss, as she fell victim to the German coastal submarine UB 20 in August 1916 in the North Sea. She was first stopped, then fortunately the crew were allowed to escape in the ship's boat, before she was scuttled.
UB 20
UB 20, based in Flanders, was one of the second series of small coastal submarines of 263 tons with a crew of one officer and twenty two men. She carried four torpedoes and had a deck gun with 120 shells. She was herself lost in July 1917 while on a test dive, probably in a newly laid British minefield just off the coast near her base of Ostend. All the occupants perished. The crew was much reduced at the time as many had been taken ill in the influenza epidemic and were in hospital.