ATLANTIC CONVEYOR ro-ro cargo/container ship

[aukepalmhof]

Built as a ro-ro cargo/container vessel under yard No.2 by Swan Hunter Shipbuilder Ltd., Walker-on-Tyne, Newcastle-upon-Tyne for Atlantic Container Line, Ltd., U.K.
25 August 1969 launched under the name ATLANTIC CONVEYOR.
Tonnage 14.946 grt, 18.141 dwt, dim.212.10 x 28.05 x 19.38m., length bpp. 197.0m., draught 10.16m.
Powered by two AEI steam turbines, 38.500shp., twin shafts, speed 23 knots.
One KaMeWa bow-thrust of 10 ton, and fitted out with Sperry activated fin stabilizers.
Five cellular holds, each hold could carry 125 FEUS containers, on deck she could stow 172 loaded 40ft containers and 128 empty 40ft. containers.
March 1970 completed, homeport Liverpool.

She was special built for the North Atlantic trade between Europe and the USA, in the Atlantic Container Line, in which five vessels were used. Two under British flag, two under French and one Swedish flag.
1974 Was she transferred to Cunard S.S. Co. Ltd.
When the Falkland War broke out, she was berthed in Liverpool and on 14 April 1982 requisitioned by the British Ministry of Defence, 04 May her sister ATLANTIC CAUSEWAY was requisitioned.
16 April she arrived at the Devonport Naval Base, and her upper decks cleared of all obstructions and prepared for as flight deck and landing aids were fitted. Also fitted out with satellite communication.
Aircraft workshops and extra accommodation placed for 122 men and extra life rafts etc.
To shelter the aircraft from the worst weather, containers were used to make a sheltered area on deck of the vessel.
25 April1982 she sailed for the Ascension Islands under command of Capt. Ian North, with on board 5 Chinook and 6 Wessex helicopters. On arrival at Ascension she got 8 Fleet Air Arm Sea Harriers and 6 RAF Harrier GR.3 jump jets, while one Chinook helicopter was removed for maintenance.
She sailed from Ascension together with the amphibious group and she reached the Total Exclusion Zone on 19 May.
Her Harriers airplanes were flown off to the HMS HERMES and INVINCIBLE.

25 May when in a position east of the Falkland Islands with the Task Group, the ships were attacked by two Argentinean Super Etendard aircraft carrying Exocet missiles. The missiles were fired on a distance of 28 miles. The missiles were directed at one of the frigates which deployed distracting Chaff (metal strips). The Chaff did his job and the missile flew one after they lost her target.
The missiles then looking for an other target homed in on the ATLANTIC CONVEYOR hitting her on the port quarter, starting huge fires. Captain North, six of his crew and five servicemen died during the attack.
The surviving crew members and service personnel about 170 men altogether abandoned the blazing ship.
She was the first British merchant ship lost after World War II, and also the only British merchant ship lost in the Falkland Conflict.
28 May 1982 she sank.

Ascension 2007 £1.25 sgMS?, scott?


Source: Merchant Ships world built 1970. Register of Merchant Ships completed in 1970. Modern Shipping Disasters 1963-1987 by Norman Hooke http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_Conveyor