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Official Number: 133309
Laid down:
Builder: Palmer’s Shipbuilding & Iron Co Ltd., Jarrow
Launched: 22 February 1913
Pennant No: 8 / Y 3.1670 / C. 206
Into Service: 22 December 1916
Out of service: 30 April 1918
Fate: 30 April 1918 shelled, torpedoed & sunk
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:
22 February 1913 launched by Palmer’s Shipbuilding & Iron Co Ltd., Jarrow, Newcastle as Yard Nr: 822 named Kafue for Bucknall Steamship Lines Ltd., London
5 April 1913 ran trials
April 1913 completed
10 June 1913 at Mauritius
21 July 1913 sailed Calcutta for New York
27 July 1913 at Colombo
13 August 1913 passed Perim
27 August 1913 passed Gibraltar
4 November 1913 sailed Suez for Far East ports
January 1914 owners restyled as Ellerman & Bucknall Steamship Co Ltd., London – name unchanged
15 July 1914 at Maiunga for Zanzibar
28 July 1914 sailed Zanzibar for Colombo
31 July 1914 communicated by the 2nd Class Cruiser HMS ASTRAEA off Zanzibar
HMS ASTRAEA
19 October 1914 arrived at Boston from Colombo
24 October 1914 passed by the armoured cruiser HMS SUFFOLK which was on the New York patrol
HMS SUFFOLK
26 November 1914 passed by the armoured cruiser HMS SUFFOLK which was on the New York patrol
22 August 1916 arrived at Singapore from New York
27 December 1916 requisitioned for Admiralty service as an Expeditionary Force Transport carrying wheat and horses from Canada – name unchanged – until 3 March 1917
4 March 1917 re-deployed as an Expeditionary Force Transport carrying grain from Canada until 9 May 1917
10 May 1917 re-deployed as an Expeditionary Force Transport carrying wheat and horses from Canada until 2 July 1917
3 July 1917 re-deployed as a collier on Italian Government service until 1 August 1917
2 August 1917 re-deployed as an Expeditionary Force Transport carrying wheat and horses from Canada
30 December 1917 sailed as part of an escorted convoy from Halifax to Liverpool. The escort was the Armed Merchant Cruiser HMS ORCOMA. The convoy consisted of six ships
From an unknown date re-deployed as an Expeditionary Force Transport carrying wheat and horses from Portland, Maine until 15 April 1918. Was then transferred to the Liner section until …
30 April 1918 shelled then torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U86 eleven miles SW Mull of Galloway when on passage from Glasgow to Calcutta carrying a general cargo and with the loss of one life – Horseman Richard Edwards who is remembered with pride on the Tower Hill Memorial