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Built by Cochrane & Sons Selby, Owned by Overseas Towage & Salvage Co Ltd, Launched 26-9-1938 , Completed January 1939, Commissioned Sep 1939 , Displacement: 571 tons., Yard No: 1197, Length overall: 46.3: , LPP: 43.0 , Beam: 10.6, Armament: 1 12pdr AA gun.
SALVONIA was requisitioned as a rescue tug by the British Government from September 1939 to October 1942.
30 June 1940
The ZARIAN was torpedoed by U-26], 250 miles off the Scilly Isles. She was struck amidships on the port side aft. Fortunately there were no casualties and she was towed to Falmouth by the tugboat HMS SALVONIA for repair and she returned to service in June 1941. She had been en route in ballast from Portsmouth to Dakar.
18 Aug 1940
HMS SALVONIA picks up 17 survivors from the British vessel EMPIRE MERCHANT, which had been sunk by German U-boat U-100 two days earlier 186 nautical miles west of Bloody Foreland in position 55°23'N, 13°24'W.
31 Aug 1940
The Dutch passenger ship VOLENDAM is torpedoed and damaged about 200 nautical miles west of the Bloody Foreland in position 56.04'N, 09.52'W by German U-boat U-60. HMS SALVONIA later takes the damaged ship in tow and beaches it on the Isle of Bute.
19 Oct 1940
The British merchant SEDGEPOOL is torpedoed and sunk about 80 nautical miles west by south from St. Kilda in position 57.20'N, 11.22'W. HMS SALVONIA later picks up 36 survivors.
22 Oct 1940
HMS SALVONIA picks up survivors from the British merchant PORT GISBORNE that was torpedoed and sunk on 11 October 1940 by German U-boat U-48 west-southwest of Rockall in position 56.38'N, 16.40'W.
HMS SALVONIA also picks up 16 survivors from the Canadian merchant SAINT MAL, that was torpedoed and sunk on 12 October 1940 off Rockall in position 57.58'N, 16.32'W also by German U-boat U-48.
13 November 1940
A straggler from Convoy OB-240, the British steam merchant CAPE ST. ANDREW was torpedoed and sunk by the U-137, west-northwest of Aran Islands, Ireland in the northern Atlantic Ocean. Of the ship’s complement, 15 died and 53 survivors were picked up by the British rescue tug HMS SALVONIA. The 5,094 ton CAPE ST. ANDREW was carrying ballast and was bound for Bombay, India.
3 Mar, 1941
HMS ENCHANTRESS successfully locates the Royal Navy submarine HMS TAKU damaged and adrift in the Atlantic. With the corvette HMS GLADIOLUS and tug HMS SALVONIA, HMS ENCHANTRESS successfully escorts HMS TAKU into Londonderry on the 10th March.
1 September 1942
RFA BUSTLER arrived at Gibraltar in company with HMS SALVONIA
Renamed: 47 ABEILLE No.25. Arrived to be broken up at Le Havre February 1970.
Sources: Wikipedia. Mirimar. Ships of the Royal Navy Part 2 by Colledge. Various websites. http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/7468.html. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Africa_Company. http://ww2timelines.com/1940/november/11131940.htm.
http://theflowerclasscorvetteforums.yuk ... lass-Sloop.
Information Mr P Crichton.

Pennant nr. W 43
Gt:571, Nt:440, Dw:33, loa:46,33m. lpp:43,74m. br:10,09m. depth:4,62m. 3 cyl. engine of C.D. Holmes & Co. Ltd., Hull:213 nhp.
(Malta 2012, 0,26 Euro)

Hi,
I noticed the stamp + description. It may be of interest that the stamp is at fault. The tug depicted is NOT Salvonia. Actually, it is the Dutch tug Thames which, in 1960, became another Salvonia, also operated by Overseas Towage. Thames, dating from 1939, was indeed a WWII rescue tug, but under her own name. Thames was never involved in 'pedestal'. So this is some kind of design blooper.

This is correct. The wrong tug is depicted on the stamp, it is the Dutch tug THAMES (II) built in 1939.

Built as an ocean tug under yard no 514 by Machinefabriek en Scheepswerf van P. Smit Jr. N.V., Rotterdam for N.V. Internationale Sleepdienst Maatschappij, Rotterdam. 25 May 1938 launched as the THAMES, christened by Miss.C.M.B. Vuyk. Tonnage 624 gross, 17 net, dim. 55.80 x 9.42 x 5.35m, length bpp. 52.50m. draught 3.80m. Powered by two 12-cyl. Smit-B&W diesel, 2,000 bhp, one shaft, speed 16 knots. 1 19 July 1938 delivered to owners.

03.01.1939: the Danish cargo vessel OTTO PETERSEN lost her screw in the Atlantic in position 46 24N 54 32 W en route from New York to London. Was towed into safe port at St. John NF by Dutch tug THAMES.
October 1940 at station at the Scottish port Campbeltown she received orders on 29 October to assist the British passenger steamer EMPRESS OF BRITAIN on fire in the North Atlantic. The next morning about 07.00 the crew of the THAMES sighted her, a towing cable was connected with the burning ship with the help of 12 men of destroyer HMS DRAKE, and around 11.00 after the British tug MARAUDER also was connected the tow commenced in a calm sea, speed of the tow around 4.5 knots. During the night two heavy explosions were heard in the forepart of the burning EMPRESS OF BRITAIN and the vessel got a heavy list to port, 15 minutes later she sank and the towline was cut on the THAMES. Most probably course for the explosion was that the EMPRESS OF BRITAIN was torpedoed.
She took also part in the sinking of the aircraft carrier ARK ROYAL, after she was hit by an enemy torpedo. At that moment the THAMES was at station in Gibraltar and on 13 November 1941 at 16.30 she sailed from Gibraltar to assist the ARK ROYAL which in a position of 40 miles east of Gibraltar lay dead in the water. At 20.00 the same day after a tow connection was made and with a heavy list the tow to Gibraltar started. Speed of tow 3 mile.
14 November at 05.30 a.m. the towline was disconnected and at 06.14 a.m. the ARK ROYAL sank.
In 1943 she towed a half part of a dry-dock from Montevideo to Dakar, the ROODE ZEE towed the other part. After deliver of the dock the THAMES was stationed at Freetown.
Took later part in Operation Overlord the invasion of Normandy in June 1944.
July 1945 she returned to her homeport Maassluis in the Netherlands.
21 November 1960 she was sold to Overseas Towing & Salvage Co. Ltd., London and renamed SALVONIA.
November 1964 the SALVONIA was dispatched from Singapore to proceed to the grounding site of the Panamanian motor vessel POMPADOUR on Bombay Reef, 70 miles from Palawan Island, Philippines, arriving at midnight on 17 November 1964. However during refloating operations on November 19 the SALVONIA herself grounded. Fourteen of the crew were taken on board the POMPADOUR but another seven remained adrift on a raft until being rescued by HM frigate ZEST two days later. The ZEST also picked up both crews from the POMPADOUR, taking all 45 to Labuan. The SALVONIA, lying on her side partially submerged in lat. 09 26N 116 55E was declared a constructive total loss.
The POMPADOUR was later salvaged and after many name changes in 1973 converted in a barge in the Philippines

Source: Modern Shipping Disasters 1963-1987 by Norman Hooks. http://www.miramarshipindex.org.nz http://www.marhisdata.nl/main.php?to_page=schip&id=6498 and various other web-sites.