Official Number:                        164297 

Laid down:

Builder:                                   Ardrossan Dockyard Ltd., Ardrossan

Launched:                               30 May 1936

Pennant No:                            

Into Service:                            September 1939

Out of service:                         2 December 1943 caught fire and sank

Fate:                                      1948 raised and  broken up

Items of historic interest involving this ship: –

Background Data:  One of an additional group of ships requisitioned by the Admiralty during WW2 to augment the ships of the RFA

Career Data:

30 May 1936 launched by Ardrossan Dockyard Ltd., Ardrossan as Yard Nr: 362 named DEVON COAST for Coast Lines, Liverpool

August 1936 completed

September 1939 requisitioned for Admiralty service as a Stores Carrier – name unchanged

20 September 1939 sailed Quiberon Bay with ten other ships in escorted convoy BC2R arriving the Bristol Channel22 September 1939

15 November 1939 sailed Bristol Channel in escorted convoy BC15 together with nine other ships escorted by HMS’s VIVACIOUS, VESPER and VANESSA for the Loire arriving 17 November 1939

3 November 1941 sailed Holyhead joining escorted convoy BB96 with twelve other ships for Milford Haven arriving the next day

22 October 1942 sailed the River Clyde in escorted convoy KX4A with nineteen other ships arriving Gibraltar 4 November 1942

29 November 1942 sailed Oran in convoy TE7 with three other ships to Bone arriving 3 December 1942

11 March 1943 sailed Bougie in convoy ET13X to Algiers arriving 13 March 1943

20 May 1943 named in the Operation Order for ‘Operation Husky’ sailing from Malta – shown as a ‘Small Tanker’ carrying 87 Octane petrol and diesol. Also named in the same section of this Operation Order was RFA NASPRITE

8 September 1943 sailed Malta and joined escorted convoy MKS24 – from Alexandria to Gibraltar – to Augusta arriving 14 September 1943 RFA CELEROL also sailed from Malta to join the same convoy

18 October 1943 sailed Brindisi in unescorted convoy HA4/M to Augusta arriving the next day

2 December 1943 was lost during an air raid on Bari while alongside the Norwegian vessel LOM which caught fire and exploded. The flames spread to DEVON COAST which was loaded with high octane fuel at the time with Able Seaman Thomas McDonough being killed. The Able Seaman has no known grave and is remembered with pride on the Tower Hill Memorial on Panel 35

1948 the wreck was raised and broken up