''Empire Florizel'' was a cargo ship that was built in 1943 by

Lithgows Lithgows Limited is a family-owned Scottish company that had a long involvement in shipbuilding, based in Kingston, Port Glasgow, on the River Clyde in Scotland. It has a continued involvement in marine resources. History Founding The Company w ...

Greenock Greenock (; sco, Greenock; gd, Grianaig, ) is a town and administrative centre in the Inverclyde council areas of Scotland, council area in Scotland, United Kingdom and a former burgh of barony, burgh within the Counties of Scotland, historic ...

, Renfrewshire, United Kingdom for the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT). She had a short career, being bombed and sunk during the Allied invasion of Sicily exactly three months after her launch.

Description

The ship was

long between perpendiculars Length between perpendiculars (often abbreviated as p/p, p.p., pp, LPP, LBP or Length BPP) is the length of a ship along the summer load line from the forward surface of the stem, or main bow perpendicular member, to the after surface of the ster ...

( overall), with a beam of . She had a depth of and a draught of . She was assessed at , . The ship was propelled by a 520

nhp Horsepower (hp) is a unit of measurement of power, or the rate at which work is done, usually in reference to the output of engines or motors. There are many different standards and types of horsepower. Two common definitions used today are the ...

triple expansion steam engine, which had cylinders of 23½ inches (60 cm), 37½ inches (96 cm) and diameter by stroke. The engine was built by John Brown & Co. Ltd,

Clydebank Clydebank ( gd, Bruach Chluaidh) is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. Situated on the north bank of the River Clyde, it borders the village of Old Kilpatrick (with Bowling, West Dunbartonshire, Bowling and Milton, West Dunbartonshire, Mil ...

, Renfrewshire. It drove a single screw

propeller A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon ...

History

The ship was built in 1943 by Lithgows Ltd,

, Renfrewshire. She was yard number 990. She was launched on 21 April 1943. Her port of registry was

. The

Code Letters Code letters or ship's call sign (or callsign) Mtide Taurus - IMO 7626853"> SHIPSPOTTING.COM >> Mtide Taurus - IMO 7626853/ref> were a method of identifying ships before the introduction of modern navigation aids and today also. Later, with the i ...

BFGY andUnited Kingdom

Official Number Official numbers are ship identifier numbers assigned to merchant ships by their flag state, country of registration. Each country developed its own official numbering system, some on a national and some on a port-by-port basis, and the formats hav ...

169503 were allocated. ''Empire Florizel'' was operated under the management of J & G Harrison & Co. Ltd., Glasgow, Renfrewshire. Her 48 crew were supplemented by 21 DEMS gunners. Carrying 4,000 tons of military and invasion stores and fourteen passengers, ''Empire Florizel'' made her maiden voyage as a member of Convoy KMS 96G, which departed from the Clyde on 25 June 1943 and passed

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...

on 6 July. Redesignated KMS 19, the convoy arrived at

Algiers Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques ...

, Algeria on 8 July in preparation for Operation Husky. Redesignated KMS 19Y, the convoy departed from Algiers on 14 July and arrived at

Augusta, Sicily Augusta (, archaically ''Agosta''; scn, Austa ; Greek and la, Megara Hyblaea, Medieval: ''Augusta'') is a town and in the province of Syracuse, located on the eastern coast of Sicily (southern Italy). The city is one of the main harbours in I ...

, Italy on 20 July. ''Empire Florizel'' was bombed and sunk at Augusta on 21 July. Two of her crew, four gunners and three passengers were killed. The two crew members killed are commemorated on the

Tower Hill Memorial The Tower Hill Memorial is a pair of Commonwealth War Graves Commission memorials in Trinity Square Gardens, on Tower Hill in London, England. The memorials, one for the First World War and one for the Second, commemorate civilian, merchant seaf ...

in London.

References

External links

Photograph of ''Empire Florizel''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Empire Florizel 1943 ships Ships built on the River Clyde Empire ships Ministry of War Transport ships Steamships of the United Kingdom Maritime incidents in July 1943 World War II shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea Cargo ships sunk by aircraft Ships sunk by German aircraft