Official Number:                   129582

Pennant No:                          Y3.553 / G.1608

Signal Letters:                       HTBC

Laid down:

Builder:                                   Russell & Co., Kingston Yard, Port Glasgow

Launched:                             10 June 1911

Into Service:                          15 August 1914

Out of service:                       28 March 1919

Fate:                                       1944 scuttled

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:

10 June 1911   launched by Russell & Co, Kingston Yard, Port Glasgow as Yard Nr  619 named KIRKFIELD for Kirkfield Steamship Co Ltd (J.R. Cuthbertson, Managers), Glasgow.

3 July 1911 register opened at Glasgow as Nr 54/1911 in the Register Book

July 1911  ccompleted

2 August 1914   fought off a U-Boat attack off Ushant by gunfire

15 August 1914  requisitioned for service as an Indian Expeditionary Force Transport until 25 December 1914

22 September 1914 part of an escorted convoy from Gibraltar to Malta. Escorted by HMS MINERVA              

22 February 1915  served as a Collier until 4 June 1915

5 June 1915  served as a Transport carrying sugar until 4 September 1915

27 November 1915  served as a Collier until 24 December 1915

25 December 1915  served as an Expeditionary Force Transport carrying stores from Canada until 4 May 1917

1916   sold to Anchor Line (Henderson Bros) Ltd, Glasgow as a War Loss replacement and renamed TARANTIA

14 April 1917 missed by an enemy torpedo W of Ushant

5 May 1917 served as a Transport carrying wheat from Canada until 8 July 1917

9 July 1917  served as an Expeditionary Force Transport carrying Mediterranean M.T. until 15 September 1917

16 September 1917 served as a Transport carrying sugar from Java until 2 January 1918

3 January 1918  served as a Collier until 9 February 1918

10 February 1918 served as a Transport carrying nitrates from Chile and was then transferred to the Liner Section on 17 May 1918

20 April 1918 sailed from Haliax in a convoy escorted by HMS COLUMBELLA

18 May 1918  with the Liner Section until 28 March 1919

1918  placed on Owners’ Italy to New York cargo service

10 April 1921 entered Greenock Harbour

1922  transferred to her Owners’ Avonmouth to India service.

1935  owners restyled as Anchor Line (1935) Ltd, Glasgow and was placed on her Owners’ Disposal List.

1937 sold to Th. L. Teryazos, Piraeus and renamed LEONTIOS TERYAZOS.

1941  was seized by the Germans and renamed RASTENBURG

25 August 1944  scuttled at Bassend, River Gironde by retreating Germans

1945  wreck raised and broken up locally