SS St Petersburg

History
Name:	1910-1916:TrSS St Petersburg 1920-1941:TrSS Archangel
Operator:	1910-1923:Great Eastern Railway 1923-1941:London and North Eastern Railway
Port of registry:
Builder:	John Brown, Clydebank
Yard number:	397
Launched:	25 April 1910
Out of service:	17 May 1941
Fate:	Wrecked
General characteristics
Tonnage:	2,448 gross register tons (GRT)
Length:	330.8 feet (100.8 m)
Beam:	43.2 feet (13.2 m)
Depth:	17.8 feet (5.4 m)
Speed:	21 knots

TrSS St Petersburg was a passenger vessel built for the Great Eastern Railway in 1910.^[1]

History

St Petersburg was built by John Brown & Company of Clydebank for the Great Eastern Railway and launched on 25 April 1910.^[2] She was launched by Miss Green, daughter of Frederick Green, director of the Great Eastern Railway Company. She was placed on the Harwich-to-Hook of Holland route.^[3]

St Petersburg was requisitioned by the Admiralty during the First World War and renamed Archangel in 1916. She was used as a cross-channel troopship.

After the war Archangel returned to railway ownership, and in 1923 she fell under the ownership of the London and North Eastern Railway. She ran aground at the Hook of Holland in South Holland, the Netherlands, on 20 January 1925. Her passengers were landed by three tugs.^[4]

Requisitioned again in the Second World War, Archangel was bombed and damaged on 16 May 1941 in the North Sea 10 nautical miles (19 km) north east of Aberdeen (57°55′N 2°03′W / 57.917°N 2.050°W) by Luftwaffe aircraft with the loss of 52 of the 475 people on board. The survivors were rescued by HMS Blankney. On 17 May 1941 Archangel was beached 5 nautical miles (9.3 km) south of Newburgh, Aberdeenshire and broke into four. ^[5]

Approximate location of the attack

References

1. Duckworth, Christian Leslie Dyce; Langmuir, Graham Easton (1968). Railway and other Steamers. Prescot, Lancashire: T. Stephenson and Sons,.
2. "New G.E.R. Steamer". Chelmsford Chronicle. England. 29 April 1910. Retrieved 30 October 2015 – via British Newspaper Archive. (subscription required (help)).
3. Haws, Duncan (1993). Merchant Fleets – Britain's Railway Steamers – Eastern and North Western Companies + Zeeland and Stena. Hereford: TCL Publications. ISBN 0 946378 22 3.
4. "Channel steamer aground". The Times (43865). London. 21 January 1925. col G, p. 14.
5. "NAVAL EVENTS, May 1941, Part 2 of 2, Thursday 15th – Saturday 31st". Naval History. Retrieved 12 December 2011.