Requisitioned Auxiliary – Kafue

 

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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

hmsastraea2

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

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