Official No:                              104275

Builder:                                   Wood, Skinner & Co Ltd., Bill Quay

Launched:                               23 January 1895

Pennant No:                            Y 3.2034

Into Service:                            6 March 1918

Out of service:                         14 September 1918

Fate:                                       Sunk 14 September 1918

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:

23 January 1895 by Wood, Skinner & Co Ltd., Bill Quay as Yard Nr: 54 named BAMBURGH for L. S Carr & Co., Newcastle

24 January 1895 the Shields Daily Gazette newspaper reported …

March 1895 completed

9 March 1895 arrived back on the River Tyne after conducting trials

12 March 1895 the Shields Daily Gazette newspaper reported –

25 July 1895 sailed Newport for Gibraltar

31 July 1895 at Gibraltar

20 December 1895 sailed Swansea

14 January 1896 sailed Gibraltar for Ayr

21 June 1896 arrived River Tyne from Yarmouth

9 January 1897 arrived on the River Tyne from Cherbourg

2 June 1897 at Sea Reach, Gravesend while on passage from Valencia in collision with the steamer Indraghiri of Liverpool suffering damage to her stem and bows

18 February 1898 arrived at Gravesend from Goole

17 May 1898 passed the Lloyds Signal Station on North Foreland sailing north bound

17 January 1899 sailed the River Tyne for London

26 January 1899 arrived at Gravesend

12 April 1899 sailed Goole

9 June 1899 arrived at the River Tyne and

26 July 1899 the Shields Gazette reported –

21 November 1910 at St Malo Fireman Hugh Kelly discharged dead from drowning. Fireman Kelly’s body was found on 26 November 1910

October 1913 purchased by M H Bland & Co Ltd., Gibraltar and sailed out to Gibraltar – name unchanged

27 December 1913 arrived at Gibraltar

January 1914 renamed Gibel Hamam by her owners

12 September 1916 arrived at Newport from Liverpool

6 March 1918 requisitioned for Admiralty service as a collier – name unchanged. The ships Master was Captain John O Tuplin

14 September 1918 torpedoed and sunk off Abbotsbury, Dorset about 15 miles south of Portland Bill by German submarine U-103 while on passage from Swansea to France with a cargo of coal with the loss of all twenty one of her crew. Those who died without any known grave are rememberd with pride on the Tower Hill Memorial and the Plymouth Naval Memorial.  Captain Tuplin was buried in Malpas (St Mary’s) Churchyard, Malpas, Gwent and Seaman Michael Harvey RNR is buried in Great Yarmouth (Caister) Cemetery

Seaman Michael Harvey RNR