Requisitioned Auxiliary – Cape Antibes

 

Cape Antibes 

 

 Cape Antibes

 

Official Number:                       117380

Laid down:

Builder:                                   Wm Dobson & Co., Low Walker, Newcastle

Launched:                               12 May 1903

Pennant No:                            Y 3.546

Into Service:                           20 February 1915

Out of service:                         21 October 1915

Fate:                                      Mined and sunk 21 October 1915

 

Items of historic interest involving this ship: –

 

Background Data:  One of an additional group of ships requisitioned by the Admiralty during WW1 to augment the ships of the RFA

 

Career Data:

 

12 May 1903 launched by Wm Dobson & Co., Low Walker, Newcastle as Yard No: 125 named Cape Antibes for Cape Antibes Steamship Co Ltd., Glasgow

May 1903 completed at a cost of £32,000

19 June 1908 sailed Liverpool for Bristol

20 July 1908 sailed Portishead Dock for Glasgow

16 November 1909 arrived at Natal from Buenos Aires

14 December 1909 arrived at Tuticorin from Natal

16 March 1910 in the Firth of Forth Pilot William Gosard Brown and Pilot’s Boatman John Moir both believed to have drowned – entered as both discharged dead in the ships Articles

1 December 1914 on passage from Bombay to an English port

27 February 1915 requisitioned for Admiralty service as a collier – name unchanged – until 3 June 1915

28 February 1915 arrived the River Tyne from Hull

31 March 1915 passed the Lloyds Signal Station on the Lizard

6 April 1915 arrived at Queen Alexandra Dock, Cardiff

4 June 1915 re-deployed as a Transport carrying sugar from Cuba – until 1 October 1915

1 October 1915 re-deployed as a collier to Northern Russia for the Russian Government a/c until …

7 October 1915 in Barry Graving Dock

21 October 1915 struck a mine laid by the German SMS Meteor (Wolfram von Knorr) on 7 June 1915 and sank at the entrance to the White Sea between Cape Gorodezki and Cape Volof in position 67°35N 41°16E while on passage from Barry to Archangel carrying coal with the loss of six lives

 

Notes:

 

SMS – Seiner Majestat Schiff – His Majesty’s Ship