SS Empire Tower

SS Empire Tower was a British 4,378 GRT cargo ship built in 1935 and sunk by enemy action in 1943.

History
United Kingdom
NameSS Roxburgh[1]
NamesakeRoxburgh, Scotland
OwnerB.J. Sutherland & Co.[1]
Port of registryUnited Kingdom Newcastle-upon-Tyne
BuilderBurntisland Shipbuilding Company Ltd, Fife, Scotland[2]
LaunchedMarch 1935[2]
Identification
FateSold 1937[2]
History
NameSS Tower Field[1]
OwnerTower Steamship Co.
OperatorCounties Ship Management, London[1]
Port of registryUnited Kingdom London
Out of service19 October 1941[1]
Identification
FateRan aground & broke in two[3]
NameSS Empire Tower[1]
OwnerMinistry of War Transport[1]
OperatorCounties Ship Management, London[1]
Port of registryUnited Kingdom London
In serviceDecember 1942[1]
Out of service5 March 1943[1]
IdentificationUK official number 161579[2]
FateTorpedoed and sunk by U-130, 5 March 1943[1]
General characteristics
Typecargo ship[2]
Tonnage
Length372.0 ft (113.4 m)[2]
Beam52.4 ft (16.0 m)[2]
Draught24 ft 5 in (7.44 m)[2]
Depth25.2 ft (7.7 m)[2]
Installed power335 NHP
Propulsiontriple expansion steam engine;[2] single screw
Crew39 plus 6 DEMS gunners[1]

She was built by the Burntisland Shipbuilding Company Ltd. in Fife, Scotland. The North Eastern Marine Engineering Co. Ltd. of Sunderland built her 335 NHP three-cylinder triple expansion steam engine.[2] She had six corrugated furnaces with a combined heating surface of 117 square feet (11 m2) heat to heat her three 180 lbf/in2 single-ended boilers, which had a combined heating surface of 5,445 square feet (506 m2).[2] She was fitted with direction finding equipment.[2]

She was launched as SS Roxburgh for B.J. Sutherland and Company of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.[1] In 1937 the Tower Hill Steamship Company, an offshoot of Counties Ship Management, bought her and renamed her SS Tower Field.[1]

Damage and repair

On 10 May 1941 Tower Field was steaming in ballast from London to Newcastle when a German aircraft attacked and damaged her off the Outer Dowsing Buoy in the Thames Estuary.[3] She was repaired and returned to service.[3]

On 19 October 1941 she was entering Workington Channel off Hull with a cargo of iron ore when she ran aground and fractured her hull.[3] She broke in two but her cargo was discharged and she was refloated and repaired.[3]

The Ministry of War Transport took her over and renamed her SS Empire Tower but kept her under CSM management.[2] She returned to service in December 1942.[3]

SS Empire Tower is located in North Atlantic
SS Empire Tower
Approximate position of Empire Tower's wreck

Sinking

Early in 1943 Empire Tower, under Captain David John Williams OBE, joined Convoy XK-2 from Gibraltar to the UK.[3] On 5 March the German Type IX submarine[4] U-130 attacked the convoy and sank Empire Tower, Fidra, Ger-y-Bryn and Trefusis.[3][5] Empire Tower sank within a minute and Captain Williams, six gunners and 35 crew were lost.[3] The Royal Navy armed trawler HMS Loch Oskaig rescued three survivors and landed them at Londonderry,[3] Northern Ireland.

One week later, on 12 March, a depth charge attack by US Navy destroyer USS Champlin west of the Azores sank U-130 with the loss of all 53 hands.[4]

References
  1. Allen, Tony; Vleggeert, Nico (29 January 2010). "SS Empire Tower [+1943]". The Wreck Site. Retrieved 31 May 2011.
  2. Lloyd's Register, Steamships and Motorships (PDF). London: Lloyd's Register. 1943. Retrieved 30 March 2013.
  3. Helgason, Guðmundur (1995–2010). "Empire Tower". uboat.net. Guðmundur Helgason. Retrieved 31 May 2011.
  4. Helgason, Guðmundur (1995–2010). "U-130". uboat.net. Guðmundur Helgason. Retrieved 31 May 2011.
  5. Slader, John (1988). The Red Duster at War. London: William Kimber & Co Ltd. p. 253. ISBN 0-7183-0679-1.

43.50°N 14.46°W / 43.50; -14.46

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