Built as a passenger-cargo vessel by Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Co. Ltd. at Glasgow for the Bibby Line Ltd., at Liverpool.
20 April 1927 launched under the name CHESHIRE.
Tonnage 10.623 gross, 6.040 net, 10.190 dwt., dim. 153 x 18.4 x 7.9m. (draught)
Powered by two diesel engines 7.700 hp. speed 15.5 knots. Twin screws.
Passenger accommodation for 275 first class.
After completion put in the service from the U.K. to Rangoon via the Suez Canal.
Homeward bound in 1939 when the Second World broke out on 9 September, already under Government control, she was on 29 August 1939 already requisitioned by the Royal Navy.
Ordered to sail to Calcutta where she was converted into an Armed Merchant Cruiser.
Armament 7 – 6 inch, 2 – 3 inch guns.
30 Oct. 1939 commissioned as HMS CHESHIRE (F18).
From Nov. 1939 – April 1940: South Atlantic Station.
May 1940 used in the North Atlantic Escort Force.
June 1940 till Oct. 1940 used in the Northern and Western Patrol.
14 Oct. 1940 in a position west from Ireland she was struck by a torpedo fired from U-137 in her No. 2 hold. Taken in tow by two rescue tugs and towed to Belfast Lough, and beached at Kilroot, where she was temporarily patched up by the Liverpool Salvage Association’s RANGER.
When beached a German bomb dropped close to her but caused no damage.
Brought in at Belfast before sailing to the Gladstone Dock at Liverpool for her definitive repair, which took 6 months.
May 1941 – Nov. 1941 in the Freetown Escort Force.
Dec. 1941 – April 1943 in the South Atlantic Station.
14 March 1942 off Cape Town, she stopped the German raider DOGGERSBANK, which, being the captured SPEYBANK of the Bank Line. (She was captured by the German auxiliary cruiser ATLANTIS on 31 Jan. 1941.) The DOGGERBANK identified herself as the LEVENBANK, a other vessel of the Bank Line, and she was allowed to proceed.
24 July 1942 took the TEMPLE INN of the Temple Steamship Co., U.K. in tow after she lost her screw, and towed her to Pointe Noir, French Congo.
18 August 1942, torpedoed in the North Atlantic by U-214 but managed to reach port.
Repaired and converted in a troopship, she was handed back to MWT on 09 June 1943.
Could carry 2.200 troops. Tonnage 10.623 gross.
Took part in the Normandy landings on D-Day, she sailed from London after she embarked her troops in King George V Dock at London, sailed from the Thames on 06 June 1944 and arrived Juno Beach on the 7th at 09.30 in convoy ETP1.
During 1945 she repatriated troops to the U.K.
25 Sept. 1946 arrived at Gibraltar with on board the residents who had been evacuated to Northern Ireland in 1940.
05 October 1948 at Port Said she was returned to the company, and sailed to Liverpool for repair en refurbishment as an emigrant ship in the service to Australia. After her refit she had accommodation for 650 passengers, of which were 434 sponsored emigrants berths. Three of her masts were removed
09 August 1949 sailed from Liverpool for her first voyage to via the Suez Canal to Fremantle, Melbourne and Sydney.
1951 She arrived at Cocos (Keeling) Islands, with on board the members of the R.A.A.F. Airfield Construction Squadron. The men constructed an airstrip for the Cocos Island airbase.
Feb. 1952 became a troopship and carried troops to the Korean War.
10 Feb. 1957 laid up in it Langton Dock at Liverpool.
1957 Sold to British Iron & Steel Corporation, and arrived at Newport, Monmouthshire on 11 July 1957, on the breakers yard of J.Cashmore for breaking up.
Sources; Donegal Shipwrecks by Ian Wilson. Conversion for War. The D-Day Ships by John de S. Winser.
North Star to Southern Cross by J.M.Maber. Troop Ships and their story by H.C.B. Rogers. Cocos (Keeling) Island Stamp Pack.
Ships of the Royal Navy Vol. 2 by Colledge
http://fp.redduster.f9.co.uk/BIBBY13.htm http://www.fortunecity.com/littleitaly/ ... /shipc.htm http://www.uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/3348.html
