Official Number:                       124275

Laid down:

Builder:                                       Irvine’s Shipbuilding & Drydock Co Ltd., West Hartlepool

Pennant No:                    Y 8.62

Signal Letters:                           HNSC

Launched:                                  1909

Into Service:                                6 January 1916

Out of service:                            3 June 1916

Fate:                                             December 1954  broken up

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:

1909 launched by Irvine’s Shipbuilding & Drydock Co Ltd., Harbour Dock, West Hartlepool as Yard Nr: 168 named Teessider for Tyne Tees Steam Shipping Co. Ltd., Newcastle

April 1909 completed

9 April 1909 arrived Gravesend from Middlesborough

6 December 1909 cleared Newcastle

30 January 1910 arrived the River Tyne from Rotterdam

9 February 1910 sailed the River Tyne for Rotterdam

12 April 1910 sailed the River Tyne for Middlesborough

15 December 1910 arrived Nieuwe Waterweg from Newcastle

12 December 1912 at 52.37°N 2.17°E passenger William Heck discharged dead from natural causes

29 September 1915 at the Free Trade Wharf, London Fireman Martin Wilding discharged dead – drowned 

6 January 1916 requisitioned for Admiralty service as a Stores Carrier – name unchanged

3 June 1916 returned to her owners – name unchanged

5 May 1921 passed the Lloyds Signal Station on Flamborough Head sailing north

6 March 1922 passed the Lloyds Signal Station on Flamborough Head sailing north

14 September 1923 rescued two exhaused elderly men in an open boat 12 miles off the coast who had been without food or water for 24 hours and were drifting further from the shore. Having provided the men with food and water they were transfered to the Hartlepool pilot cutter to be taken ashore

13 November 1924 grounded on the Black Middens Rocks, Tynemouth in dense fog and a calm sea – refloated on the next high tide

19 November 1927 sailed the River Tyne

20 November 1927 saved the crew of four of the Schooner Gauntlet on passage from Charlestown to Kirkaldy with a cargo of clay which started taking in water in heavy seas. The crew were at the pumps for 38 hours. Having saved the they were landed at Rotterdam

2 July 1928 at the Annual General Meeting of the Shipwrecked Mariners Society the “Emile Robin” Life Saving Awards were presented to Captain W H Hall and Chief Officer G Atkinson of the ss Teesider for rescuing the crew of the Schooner Gauntlet on 20 November 1927

26 February 1929 berthed at Camberdown Dock, Dundee from Nordenham, Holland with 1,100 tons of phosphate

28 February 1929 sailed Dundee in ballast

1929 purchased by Societe Algerienne de Nav pour l’Afrique du Nord, Algiers and renamed Finistere

2 April 1943 sailed Dakar joining escorted convoy SL127 to Liverpool arriving 23 April 1943. RFA FORTOL was the escort oiler on this convoy

16 November 1943 sailed Casablanca in unescorted convoy CG74 to Gibraltar arriving the next day

5 December 1943 escorted convoy UGS26 sailed from Hampton Roads to Port Said. Finistere joined in this convoy off Algiers and sailed as part of it until it reached off Bizerta

22 July 1944 sailed Casablanca as the only ship in unescorted convoy CG112 to Gibraltar arriving the next day

December 1954 arrived Vado Ligure for demolition by Mario Bertorello