courtesy of Richard Cox Collection
Official Number: 136975
Laid down:
Builder: W Dobson & Co Ltd., Walker-on-Tyne
Pennant No: Y 3.1326
Launched: 1915
Into Service: 29 October 1916
Out of service: 14 October 1917
Fate: Captured and sunk 14 October 1917
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:
1915 launched by W Dobson & Co Ltd, Walker-on-Tyne as Yard Nr: 188 named East Wales for East Wales Steamship Co Ltd., (Gibbs & Co, Managers) Cardiff
April 1915 completed
6 May 1915 passed Sagres sailing south bound
17 February 1916 off Abrolhos Rocks spoke to HMS VINDICTIVE
10 October 1916 at Sierra Leone alongside the Armed Merchant Cruiser HMS MAMORA and supplied her with 350 tons of bunker coal
29 October 1916 requisitioned for Admiralty service as a collier – name unchanged – until 11 January 1917
18 November 1916 at Port Grande alongside HMS KING ALFRED delivering stores
19 November 1916 at 16° 18N 24° 46W challenged by the battleship HMS SWIFTSURE and followed her to Sierra Leone
HMS SWIFTSURE
23 November 1916 at Sierra Leone alongside the battleship HMS SWIFTSURE and supplied 990 tons of bunker coal
9 December 1916 at Freetown, Sierra Leone alongside HMS KING ALFRED and supplyied 410 tons of bunker coal
12 January 1917 re-deployed as an Expeditionary Force Transport carrying British hay and oats
27 February 1917 arrived at Bermuda and anchored in G Berth
24 May 1917 in convoy from Hampton Roads to the UK
14 October 1917 captured by German submarine U-57 (Carl-Siegfried Ritter von Georg) then sunk by gunfire in the Atlantic 8 miles S x W ½ W Daunt’s Rock, Co Cork., Ireland in position 51°40N 04°13W when on passage outbound from Newport, Mon in ballast with the loss of 3 lives