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Official Number:                       90911

Laid down:

Builder:                                   Ramage & Ferguson Ltd., Leith

Pennant No:                    Y 3.446 / Q 8

Launched:                               9 December 1893

Into Service:                            17 November 1914

Out of service:                         21 August 1917

Fate:                                      21 August 1917 torpedoed and 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:

9 December 1893 launched by Ramage & Ferguson Ltd., Leith as Yard Nr: 122 named Vala for J T Salvesen & Co Ltd., Leith

January 1894 completed

20 January 1894 the Falkirk Herald reported …

9 March 1894 berthed at Rouen

27 July 1894 arrived Las Palmas when on passage from Rosario to Antwerp

6 August 1894 arrived at Antwerp

8 November 1895 passed Dungeness

27 November 1895 sailed Penarth

30 March 1896 arrived at Gravesend

16 July 1896 sailed Cardiff

24 August 1897 sailed Cardiff

14 April 1898 passed Prawle Point

23 October 1898 arrived at Gibraltar

2 November 1898 sailed Gravesend for Cardiff

12 January 1899 arrived Falmouth

24 February 1899 arrived Gravesend

4 March 1899 arrived Le Havre

13 July 1899 arrived Leith from Uleaborg

3 August 1899 sailed Gravesend

23 December 1899 passed Sagres

5 January 1900 arrived at Manchester

25 May 1901 sailed Grangemouth for Stockholm

26 February 1902 sailed the River Tyne

27 August 1902 arrived at Grangemouth

17 November 1914 requisitioned for Admiralty service as a collier – name unchanged – until 6 August 1915

7 August 1915 entered service as a Commissioned Miscellaneous Vessel / Decoy Ship as HMS VALA

22 April 1916 off the Old Head of Kinsale spoke with HMS JESSAMINE

17 August 1917 the ships former Commanding Officer Lieutenant Henry Johnson RNR awarded the Distinguished Service Cross

19 August 1917 sailed Milford Haven

20 August 1917 torpedoed and sunk by German submarine UB-54 (Egon von Werner) in the Atlantic 120 miles SW of the Scilly Isles in position 48º 37N 09º 28W with the loss of all 43 lives. Their loss is recorded with pride on the Portsmouth and Plymouth Naval Memorials