Official No:                              115912

Builder:                                   Sir Raylton Dixon & Co Ltd., Middlesborough

Launched:                               2 September 1902

Pennant No:                           

Into Service:                            5 September 1914

Out of service:                         16 November 1914

Fate:                                       23 September 1915

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:

2 September 1902 launched by Sir Raylton Dixon & Co Ltd., Middlesborough as Yard Nr: 491 named Groningen for General Steam Navigation Co Ltd., London

October 1902 completed for her owners’ Dutch routes with limited passenger accommodation

5 September 1914 requisitioned for Admiralty service as a Canteen Ship – name unchanged

1 November 1914 based at Cromarty

16 November 1914 returned to her owners – name unchanged

25 March 1915 chased by a German U-Boat in the North Sea but escaped

6 July 1915 subjected to an aircraft attack 4 miles from Galloper, off Harwich, the bombs missed and the ship was undamaged.

23 September 1915 struck a mine laid just over two weeks earlier by the German submarine UC-6 and sank in the mouth of the River Thames 1.5 miles N x E of Sunk Head Buoy while on passage to Harlingen to London carrying general cargo with the loss of one life