SS British Transport

History
United kingdom
Name: British Transport (1910-1933)
Owner: Empire Transport Co. Ltd. (Houlder Bros & Co. Ltd.), West Hartlepool
Builder: Raylton Dixon, Middlesbrough
Yard number: 650
Launched: 25 April 1910
Completed: June 1910
Fate: Scrapped, Pola, Italy, July 1933.
General characteristics
Class and type: Steam
Tonnage: 4143
Length: 365 feet
Beam: 51 feet
Propulsion: 2 x boilers, 1 shaft, reciprocating vertical triple expansion

SS British Transport was a steel-hulled steamship of 4143 grt built in 1910 by Raylton Dixon at Middlesbrough . On 11 September 1917 under the command of Capt. Alfred Thompson Pope (Lieut., R.N.R), British Transport was in the Bay of Biscay en route from Brest to Archangel with a cargo of munitions and other explosives when she was attacked by the surfaced U-boat SM U-49. After a five-hour gun battle lasting into darkness, U-49 fired two torpedoes at her but both missed. Betrayed by the phosphorescence in her wake, British Transport pursued and rammed the submarine, and then fired her deck gun to complete U-boat's destruction. U-49 sank at 46.17N 14.42W with the loss of all 43 hands.. This was the first action in which a merchant ship had sunk a U-boat, for which Pope was awarded the DSO.

British Transport was scrapped at Pola, Italy, in 1933. [1] [2]

References

  1. Stevens, E. F., (1950). One hundred years of Houlders. Houlder Bros., London.
  2. Haws, D., (2000). Merchant Fleets in Profile. Volume 38. ISBN 0946378398
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