Official No:                              148136

Builder:                                    Sir James Laing & Son Ltd., Deptford Yard, Sunderland

Launched:                               6 June 1925

Into Service:                            1939

Out of service:                         15 August 1940

Fate:                                          15 August 1940  torpedoed and sunk

Items of historic interest involving this ship: –

Background Data:  One of an additional group of ships requisitioned by the Admiralty during WW2 to augment the ships of the RFA

Career Data:

6 June 1925 launched by Sir James Laing & Son Ltd., Deptford Yard, Sunderland as Yard Nr: 693 named Sylvafield for Northern Petroleum Tank Steamship Co Ltd (Hunting & Sons Ltd., Managers) Newcastle

19 June 1925 the Hull Daily Mail newspaper reported …

August 1925 completed

18 October 1926 at Dunkirk Sailor Hugh H McLaughlan discharged dead having been drowned

6 May 1927 at Sea at 11.20N 89.5W Galley Boy Dennis James Blay discharged dead – missing apparently fell overboard

29 June 1927 passed the Lloyds Signal Station on the Lizard sailing west

14 June 1928 at Hamburg Ordinary Seaman Edward Smith discharged dead having been drowned

12 July 1928 sailed Constantinople for Avonmouth

19 July 1928 passed Gibraltar when on passage from Batum to Avonmouth

28 July 1928 destination changed to a port on the River Thames

2 February 1929 passed the Lloyds Signal Station on the Lizard sailing east

21 November 1934 sailed King George Wharf, Dundee for Portishead

25 November 1936 sailed Falmouth for Caripito

23 January 1938 at Eastham Locks Fireman Stafford Grant discharged dead believed drowned

7 March 1938 at Kingsnorth

25 July 1938 at Gareloch

1939 requisitioned for Admiralty service as an oiler – name unchanged

13 October 1939 sailed the River Clyde independently to Liverpool arriving 15 October 1939

16 October 1939 sailed Liverpool in convoy OB20. This convoy reformed as convoy OG3 the following day and then sailed to Gibraltar passing The Rock on 23 October 1939 before sailing independently to Port Said arriving 31 October 1939

31 October 1939 sailed Port Said independently to Abadan arriving 19 November 1939

12 December 1939 sailed Abadan independently to Suez arriving 29 December 1939

30 December 1939 sailed Port Said independently to Gibraltar arriving 9 January 1940

25 May 1940 anti-submarine trawlers HMS’s JUNIPER, HAZEL, WHITEHORN of the 19th Anti-Submarine Striking Force departed Scapa Flow with oilers COWRIE and SYLVAFIELD and collier KIRKWOOD for the Clyde

15 August 1940 torpedoed and sunk by U51 in the Atlantic WNW of Rockall in position 56.39N 11.16W while on passage from Curacao to Glasgow via Halifax whilst a straggler from convoy HX62 and carrying 7,860t of fuel oil with a loss of three lives. Twenty survivors were rescused by the Belgian Trawler Rubens and were landed at Fleetwood while a further sixteen survivors were rescued by the trawler HMS NEWLAND and landed at Tobermory