''Empire Breeze'' was a

cargo ship A cargo ship or freighter is a merchant ship that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year, handling the bulk of international trade. Cargo ships are usu ...

which was built in 1940 for the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT). Shortly after entering service she ran aground but was repaired. ''Empire Breeze'' was torpedoed and sunk by on 25 August 1942.

Description

''Empire Breeze'' was built by J L Thompson & Sons Ltd,

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

. She was yard number 603. Launched on 3 October 1940, she was completed in January 1941. ''Empire Breeze'' was long, with a beam of and a depth of . She was propelled by a

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 he ...

which had cylinders of , and bore by stroke. The engine was built by George Clarke (1938) Ltd, Sunderland. ''Empire Breeze'' was armed with a 4" gun, a 20mm AA gun and two twin machine guns.

Career

''Empire Breeze''s port of registry was Sunderland. She was operated under the management of J & J Denholm Ltd, Sunderland. On 5 February 1941, she ran aground on the Bondicar Rocks, off Amble,

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land on ...

. She was refloated on 13 March and taken in tow by the

tug A tugboat or tug is a marine vessel that manoeuvres other vessels by pushing or pulling them, with direct contact or a tow line. These boats typically tug ships in circumstances where they cannot or should not move under their own power, suc ...

''Bullger'', but the tug struck a

mine Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to: Extraction or digging * Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging *Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine Grammar *Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun ...

and sank in Druridge Bay. ''Empire Breeze'' was anchored off Cresswell and later taken to Sunderland for repairs. She was a member of a number of convoys during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

ON 37

Convoy ON 37 departed from

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

on 15 November 1941 and dispersed at sea on 24 November.

ON 122

Convoy ON 122 departed from Liverpool on 15 August 1942 and dispersed at sea on 3 September. On 25 August 1942, ''Empire Breeze'' was

torpedo A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, su ...

ed by and . Two torpedoes struck ''Empire Breeze'', killing one crew member. She began to settle by the stern. The captain of ''U-438'' claimed the kill, but postwar analysis shows that it was ''U-176'' which had fired the fatal shot. The tug was sent from St. John's,

Newfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

and was detached from the convoy to assist in salvaging ''Empire Breeze''. The surviving crew abandoned ship, but later reboarded her and sent distress signals after repairing the radio set. On 27 August, the Irish merchant ship rescued the 42 surviving crew and six DEMS gunners. They were landed at

Dunmore East Dunmore East () is a popular tourist and fishing village in County Waterford, Ireland. Situated on the west side of Waterford Harbour on Ireland's southeastern coast, it lies within the barony of Gaultier (''Gáll Tír'' – "foreigners' land" ...

County Waterford County Waterford ( ga, Contae Phort Láirge) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and is part of the South-East Region, Ireland, South-East Region. It is named ...

on 1 September. Although ''Empire Breeze'' was still afloat on 27 August, she could not be found by HMS ''Frisky'' and the search was abandoned on 30 August. Those lost on ''Empire Breeze'' are commemorated at 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 ...

, London.

Official Numbers and Code Letters

Official Numbers were a forerunner to

IMO Numbers IMO or Imo may refer to: Biology and medicine * Irish Medical Organisation, the main organization for doctors in the Republic of Ireland * Intelligent Medical Objects, a privately held company specializing in medical vocabularies * Isomaltooligosa ...

. ''Empire Breeze'' had the 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 ...

168662 and used 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 ...

GPFP.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Empire Breeze 1940 ships Ships built on the River Wear Empire ships Ministry of War Transport ships Steamships of the United Kingdom Maritime incidents in February 1941 Maritime incidents in August 1942 Ships sunk by German submarines in World War II Shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean