Official Number:                      1109234

Builder:                                   R Craggs & Sons Ltd., Dent’s Wharf, Middlesborough                                                               

Pennant No:                           Y 3.1749

Launched:                              1 October 1898

Into Service:                           22 August 1917

Out of service:                        1918

Fate:                                       23 September 1941 torpedoed & sunk

Items of historic interest involving this ship: –

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

Career Data:

1 October 1898 launched by R Craggs & Sons Ltd., Dent’s Wharf, Middlesborough as Yard Nr: 143 named Earlswood for Constantine, Pickering & Co., Middlesborough

4 October 1898 Lloyds List newspaper reported …

October 1898 completed

1901 owners restyled as Constantine & Pickering Steamship Co Ltd., Middlesborough – name unchanged

10 November 1904 sailed Grangemouth for Sunderland

16 October 1906 sailed Pernambuco

15 March 1907 at Rio de Janerio

10 May 1907 sailed the River Tyne for Barcelona, Spain

2 February 1912 sailed Barbados for Rio de Janerio

9 March 1912 arrived Rio de Janerio from Trinidad

24 November 1912 sailed St Vincent, Cape Verde Islands for Falmouth

12 December 1912 arrived at Dublin from Rosario

20 June 1915 when on passage from Rosario to Le Havre challenged by the Armed Merchant Cruiser HMS CELTIC

28 July 1915 arrived River Tyne and berthed at Smith’s Dock

1916 sold to Federated Coal & Shipping Co Ltd., Middlesborough – name unchanged

22 August 1917 requisitioned for Admiralty service as a collier and served as a collier to Northern Russia for the Russian Government a/c – name unchanged – until 3 October 1917

4 October 1917 re-deployed as a collier until 1918

1919 sold to Aster Shipping Co Ltd., (E R Brown & Co., Managers) Middlesborough – name unchanged

1923a sold to A F M Dacker, Leith and renamed Darius

1923b sold to Ozean Dampfer A G (H Schuldt, Manager) Flensburg – name unchanged

1924 sold to Wilhelm Schuchmann, Geestemunde and renamed Westsee

1926 sold to Robert Koppen, Hamburg – renamed Elsa Koppen

1932a owner became Albert Koppen, Hamburg – name unchanged

1932b owner again Wilhelm Schuchmann, Geestemunde and renamed Luvsee

23 September 1941 torpedoed and sunk by the British submarine HMS TRIUMPH (Wilfrid J W Woods) (reportedly) sailing from Sibenik, Dalmatia and flying Italian colours carrying bauxite with the loss of sixteen of her twenty crew. Four survivors were picked up by the Italian fishing boat N Sauro while the bodies of her Master and two others were recovered. (The widely given latitude and longitude position of her sinking is impossible as it is inland!)