SS ''Glentworth'' was a shelter deck cargo steamship built in 1920 by Hawthorn Leslie & Co. in

Newcastle-upon-Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is als ...

, England for R.S. Dalgliesh and Dalgliesh Steam Shipping Co. Ltd., also of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. After the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

affected UK merchant shipping in the first years of the 1930s, Dalgliesh sold ''Glentworth'' to a company controlled by Counties Ship Management (an offshoot of the Rethymnis & Kulukundis shipbroking company of London) who renamed her SS ''Box Hill''.

Details

The ship's stokehold had 12 corrugated furnaces with a combined grate area of . They heated three 200 lb_f/in² single-ended boilers with a combined heating surface of . She was built as a turbine steamer: two steam turbines with a combined power output of 620

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 ...

drove the shaft to the single propeller by reduction gearing. However, when she changed hands in 1934 she was re-engined with a Hawthorn Leslie 586 NHP three-cylinder triple expansion steam engine. The conversion retained her original boilers, but her furnaces were converted to oil burning. The ship was equipped with direction finding equipment and radio.

Loss

Late in 1939 ''Box Hill'' sailed from Saint John, New Brunswick bound for

Hull Hull may refer to: Structures * Chassis, of an armored fighting vehicle * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a ship * Submarine hull Mathematics * Affine hull, in affi ...

with a cargo of 8,452 tons wheat. On New Year's Eve she was in the North Sea off the Humber lightship when she struck a German

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 ...

. The explosion broke her back and she sank almost immediately with the loss of over half its crew. ''Box Hill'' was Counties Ship Management's first loss of the Second World War. CSM's losses continued until just a week before the

surrender of Japan The surrender of the Empire of Japan in World War II was announced by Emperor Hirohito on 15 August and formally signed on 2 September 1945, bringing the war's hostilities to a close. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy ...

in August 1945, by which time the company had lost a total of 13 ships. Both sections of ''Box Hill''s wreck were a hazard to shipping and showed above the water. In 1952 the Royal Navy dispersed her remains with high explosive and

Admiralty Admiralty most often refers to: *Admiralty, Hong Kong * Admiralty (United Kingdom), military department in command of the Royal Navy from 1707 to 1964 *The rank of admiral * Admiralty law Admiralty can also refer to: Buildings *Admiralty, Tr ...

charts now mark her position as a "foul" ground.

References

Sources & further reading

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Glentworth 1920 ships Maritime incidents in December 1939 Ships of Counties Ship Management Ships sunk by mines Ships built on the River Wear World War II shipwrecks in the North Sea World War II merchant ships of the United Kingdom