Official Number:                        142838 

Laid down:

Builder:                                    Ropner & Sons Ltd., Stockton-on-Tees

Pennant No:                            

Launched:                                27 June 1919

Into Service:                            April 1944

Out of service:                          1946

Fate:                                       Broken up 1946

Items of historic interest involving this ship: –

Background Data:  One of an additional group of ships acquired by the Admiralty during WW2 to serve as a block ship

Career Data:

1919 laid down as War Scilla for the Shipping Controller

27 June 1919 launched by Ropner & Sons Ltd., Stockton on Tees as Yard Nr: 530 named Innerton for Cuthbert I Willan, Newcastle

15 August 1919 completed

1930 owners now R Chapman & Son Newcastle – name unchanged

WW2 acquired by the MoWT under management of J & J Denholm Ltd. – name unchanged

April 1944 purchased by the Admiralty for use as a Block Ship at Arromanches

29 May 1944 arrived Oban as one of 56 intended blockships gathered there

5 June 1944 arrived Poole Bay anchorage alongwith other British and Allied ships from Oban. She had broken down in the Irish Sea while on passage from Oban and was taken in tow by the tug Empire Rupert

9 June 1944 sunk as part of Gooseberry 3 off Arromanches along with 7 other British ships

1946 was raised and broken up

Notes:

Was one of a group of nearly 60 elderly, uneconomic or damaged merchantmen plus 4 old warships who formed part of Operation Corncob – the vital Gooseberry Breakwaters which were sunk to provide protection against the weather in the English Channel for the ships supporting Operation Overlord – the D-Day Landings