SS ''Michael E'' was a cargo ship that was built in 1941. She was the first British Catapult Aircraft Merchant ship: a merchant ship fitted with a rocket catapult to launch a single

Hawker Hurricane The Hawker Hurricane is a British single-seat fighter aircraft of the 1930s–40s which was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd. for service with the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was overshadowed in the public consciousness b ...

fighter to defend a convoy against long-range German bombers. She was sunk on her maiden voyage by a German submarine.

Description

''Michael E'' was built by William Hamilton & Co Ltd, Port Glasgow. Launched in 1941, she was completed in May of that year. She was the United Kingdom's first CAM ship, armed with an

aircraft catapult An aircraft catapult is a device used to allow aircraft to take off from a very limited amount of space, such as the deck of a vessel, but can also be installed on land-based runways in rare cases. It is now most commonly used on aircraft carrier ...

on her bow to launch a

Hawker Sea Hurricane The Hawker Hurricane was a British single-seat fighter aircraft designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd. Some versions were built in Canada by the Canada Car and Foundry Co Ltd British variants Hurricane Mk I ; Hurricane Mk I ( ...

. 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 and . She had six corrugated furnaces feeding two 225 lb_f/in² single-ended boilers with a combined heating surface of . The boilers fed a 443

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 A compound steam engine unit is a type of steam engine where steam is expanded in two or more stages. A typical arrangement for a compound engine is that the steam is first expanded in a high-pressure ''(HP)'' cylinder, then having given up ...

that had cylinders of , and diameter by stroke. The engine was built by David Rowan & Co Ltd, Glasgow.

History

''Michael E'' was owned by the Bury Hill Shipping Co Ltd. a company owned by the Nicholas Eustathiou shipping concerns. She was placed under the management of

Counties Ship Management Counties Ship Management Co. Ltd. (CSM) was an ocean-going merchant shipping company based in the United Kingdom. During the Second World War CSM merchant ships made a substantial contribution to supplying the British war effort, at a cost of ...

Ltd of

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, an offshoot of the Rethymnis & Kulukundis

shipbroking Shipbroking is a financial service, which forms part of the global shipping industry. Shipbrokers are specialist intermediaries/negotiators (i.e. brokers) between shipowners and charterers who use ships to transport cargo, or between buyers a ...

company. She was named after Michael Eustathiou, a member of the

Nicholas Eustathiou family Nicholas is a male given name and a surname. The Eastern Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Anglican Churches celebrate Saint Nicholas every year on December 6, which is the name day for "Nicholas". In Greece, the name and its ...

that had a major shareholding in her. Her Code Letters were BCKB, her UK

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 ...

was 163168 and she was registered in London. ''Michael E'' was a sister ship of , , and , which also were managed by CSM and owned by companies associated with R&K.

Sinking

On 28 May 1941 ''Michael E'' sailed in ballast on her maiden voyage from

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

bound for

Halifax, Nova Scotia Halifax is the capital and largest municipality of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the largest municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of the 2021 Census, the municipal population was 439,819, with 348,634 people in its urban area. The ...

with convoy OB 327. The convoy was dispersed on 1 June and at 20:43 hours on 2 June ''Michael E'' was in the North Atlantic several hundred miles southwest of Cape Clear when fired two torpedoes at her. One missed but the other struck her in the stern killing a crew member and two DEMS gunners, and at 22:21 hours she sank by the stern. On 3 June the

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

cargo ship rescued ''Michael Es Master, 44 crew, two gunners and 12 RAF personnel.

Replacement ship

In September 1941 William Hamilton & Co completed a second CAM ship of the same class for CSM. She was launched as and effectively replaced ''Michael E''. ''Primrose Hill'' survived until October 1942 when a German-operated submarine sank her by torpedo and shellfire.

References

Sources & further reading

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Michael E 1941 ships CAM ships Ships built on the River Clyde Maritime incidents in June 1941 Ships of Counties Ship Management Ships sunk by German submarines in World War II Steamships of the United Kingdom World War II shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean World War II merchant ships of the United Kingdom