SS Duchess of York (1928)
Duchess of York
| |
History | |
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United Kingdom | |
Name | Duchess of York |
Namesake | Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, Duchess of York |
Owner | Canadian Pacific Railway Co |
Operator | Canadian Pacific Steamships Ltd |
Port of registry | London |
Route | |
Builder | John Brown & Company, Clydebank |
Yard number | 524[1] |
Launched | 28 September 1928[1] |
Completed | March 1929 |
Maiden voyage | 22 March 1929 |
Identification |
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Fate | Damaged by German air attack 11 July 1943. Sunk the next day by the Royal Navy. |
General characteristics | |
Type |
|
Tonnage | |
Length | 581.9 ft (177.4 m) |
Beam | 75.2 ft (22.9 m) |
Draught | 27 ft 6+3⁄4 in (8.4 m) |
Depth | 41.7 ft (12.7 m) |
Decks | 4 |
Installed power | 3,557 NHP |
Propulsion | Six steam turbines, twin propellers |
Speed | 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph)[1] |
Capacity |
|
Crew | 510 |
Sensors and processing systems |
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Notes | Sister ships: Duchess of Atholl, Duchess of Bedford, Duchess of Richmond |
SS Duchess of York was one of a class of four steam turbine ocean liners built in Glasgow in 1927–29 for Canadian Pacific Steamships Ltd's transatlantic service between Britain and Canada.
In the Second World War Duchess of York was converted into a troop ship. In 1943 an attack by enemy aircraft killed 27 people aboard her and left the ship burning and badly damaged. The Royal Navy sank her the next day.
Pre-war service
Duchess of York was ordered as a sister ship to
The Duchess was built by John Brown & Company of Clydebank. She was to be named Duchess of Cornwall, but for £250, Red Funnel Line agreed to swap names with their 302 GRT paddle steamer Duchess of York, which had been launched in 1896. With that, the ocean liner Duchess of York was launched by her namesake, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the Duchess of York, on September 28, 1928.[4][5]
Her first captain between 1929 and 1934 was
In 1939 it was proposed that Duchess of York or one of her sisters be modified for use on Canadian-Australasian Line's transpacific route between Sydney and Vancouver via Auckland, Suva and Honolulu. She would replace RMS Niagara, which was launched in 1913, as CP Chairman Sir Edward Beatty said that the cost of building new liners for the route was too high. Canadian Pacific and the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand jointly owned the Canadian-Australasian Line, which faced subsidised competition from the US Matson Line.[6][7]
War service and loss
In 1940, Duchess of York left Greenock on 27 July 1940, bound for Halifax taking evacuated children under the Children's Overseas Reception Board. She returned to Scotland and made a second trip taking another batch of children from Liverpool on 10 August 1940, bound for Canada.[8]
She was recommissioned by the
Two days later, the convoy was about 300 miles west of
Notes
- ^ a b c "1161202". Miramar Ship Index. Retrieved 21 June 2009.
- ^ Ships List: Canadian Pacific fleet, SS Duchess of York Archived 10 March 2010 at the Wayback Machine
- ISBN 978-0907675037.
- ISBN 978-1-55488-765-1.
- ISBN 978-0946184217.[page needed]
- ^ "May replace Niagara". The Herald. 29 July 1939. p. 5. Retrieved 19 December 2020 – via Trove.
- ^ "Another liner". Auckland Star. 9 August 1939. p. 11. Retrieved 19 December 2020 – via Papers Past.
- ^ Pier 21 Halifax[clarification needed]
- ^ "Mercantile Marine.com". Archived from the original on 27 July 2011. Retrieved 20 June 2008.
- ^ a b "Maritime Disasters of World War II". Retrieved 20 June 2008.
- ^ "Wrecksite.eu website – SS California". Retrieved 25 June 2008.
References
- Musk, George. (1981). Canadian Pacific: The Story of the Famous Shipping Line. Newton Abbot: ISBN 0-7153-7968-2
- Tate, E. Mowbray. (1986). Transpacific Steam: The Story of Steam Navigation from the Pacific Coast of North America to the Far East and the Antipodes, 1867–1941. New York: Cornwall Books. ISBN 978-0-8453-4792-8(cloth)