Official Number:                       142757 

Laid down:

Builder:                                   Short Bros. Ltd., Pallion Yard, Sunderland

Launched:                               4 November 1918

Into Service:                            5 November 1939

Out of service:                         15 October 1943

Fate:                                       1943 sunk as a target

Items of historic interest involving this ship: –

Background Data:  One of an additional group of ships purchased by the Admiralty during WW2 for use as a Block Ship

Career Data:

4 November 1918 launched by SHort Brothers Ltd., Pallion Yard, Sunderland as Yard Nr: 402 named War Merlin for the Shipping Controller

January 1919 completed

September 1919 purchased by British India Steam Navigation Co Ltd., London and renamed GAMBHIRA

20 October 1919 at Barry Topas Ramedio Mendes discharged dead – suicide by hanging

26 February 1920 sailed Singapore for Calcutta

22 May 1920 berthed at Colombo, Ceylon with a fire in No: 4 hold which she had previously reported now extinguished

7 December 1920 berthed at Calcutta

17 August 1921 at 5.48N 80.48E Lascar Gonoo Meah discharged dead with bowell trouble and fever

4 November 1921 arrived Melbourne, Australia from Calcutta

28 May 1923 berthed at Bombay

28 August 1923 berthed at Bombay

14 April 1924 between Cochin and Alleppey 3rd Cook M M Cardoze discharged dead – reported missing

17 September 1924 at Bombay 4th Engineer Officer James Carswell discharged dead from enteric fever

6 July 1925 arrived at Adelaide from Calcutta

23 May 1926 arrived at Batavia

6 January 1927 sailed Bombay for Calcutta

5 August 1927 sailed Zanzibar for Mombassa

9 September 1927 sailed Calcutta for Sydney NSW

16 May 1929 at 18.41N 90.37E Engineers Boy R Dias discharged dead from heart failure due to dysentry

10 December 1930 berthed at Calcutta

2 October 1932 from Rangoon arrived at Mahe, Seychelles

8 April 1933 arrived Madras from Bombay

15 September 1937 sailed Calcutta

1 October 1937 sailed Port Said while on passage from Calcutta for London

27 October 1937 berthed at Dundee with a cargo of jute from Calcutta via London

4 November 1937 from Middlesborough arrived at Antwerp

12 November 1937 passed the Lloyds Signal Station on the Lizard sailing west bound

19 November 1937 sailed Swansea for Glasgow

28 December 1937 passed Aden while on passage to Basra

23 February 1939 sailed Calcutta for Karachi

21 July 1939 sailed sailed Calcutta

14 August 1939 sailed from Port Sudan for Dundee

17 August 1939 sailed Aden

1939 purchased for demolition by Hughes Blockow Shipbreaking Co at Blyth but …..

5 November 1939 purchased by the Admiralty for use as a Block Ship, name unchanged

15 November 1939 the Times Newspaper of this day carried the following legal notice –

8 December 1939 scuttled as a Block Ship in Kirk Sound, Scapa Flow between Lamb Holm and St Mary’s village, Holm

23 May 1940 the Times newspaper carried a further legal notice concerning the sale of the ships cargo of jute

15 August 1943 the wreck was raised and towed to Liverpool Bay

15 October 1943 was sunk off Llandudno for use as a sonar target

Notes:

Was one of seventeen Standard ‘B’ Class ships purchased by British India after WW1