SS ''Gracechurch'' was a UK

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 ...

built by

William Doxford & Sons William Doxford & Sons Ltd, often referred to simply as Doxford, was a British shipbuilding and marine engineering company. History William Doxford founded the company in 1840. From 1870 it was based in Pallion, Sunderland, on the River Wea ...

Pallion Pallion is a suburb and electoral ward in North West Sunderland, in Tyne and Wear, England. Most of the buildings in the area were built during the Victorian Era and consist of large terraced houses built for shipbuilders, but also smaller one- ...

Wearside Wearside () is a built-up area in both Tyne and Wear and County Durham, Northern England. It is named after the River Wear which flows through it and traditionally all in the County of Durham. In the 2011 census, its official name was the Sunder ...

in 1930. She twice changed owners and names, becoming SS ''Peebles'' in 1933 and SS ''Mill Hill'' in 1936. She was sunk by a German submarine in August 1940.

Engines

The ship had nine corrugated furnaces with a combined grate area of feeding three 180 lb_f/in² single-ended boilers with a combined heating surface of .

Names and owners

''Gracechurch'' was first owned by Gracechurch Shipping Co of Newcastle and managed by James, Muers & Co of

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

. In 1933 she was sold to B.J. Sutherland & Co who renamed her ''Peebles''. In 1936 she was sold to the Mill Hill Steam Ship Co Ltd, which was controlled by

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 ...

(an offshoot of the Rethymnis & Kulukundis shipbroking company of London) who renamed her ''Mill Hill''.

Loss

On 16 August 1940 ''Mill Hill'' left

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 ...

as a member of convoy HX 66A laden with pig iron and scrap steel for

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

, England. Between 0220 and 0248 hrs on 30 August 58 miles off

Cape Wrath Cape Wrath ( gd, Am Parbh, known as ' in Lewis) is a cape in the Durness parish of the county of Sutherland in the Highlands of Scotland. It is the most north-westerly point in mainland Britain. The cape is separated from the rest of the mai ...

in the north of Scotland ' torpedoed the convoy, sinking three ships. One was ''Mill Hill'', which sank within a few minutes with the loss of all hands.

Replacement ships

''Gracechurch'' was the third of four ships that B.J. Sutherland & Co named ''Peebles''. When Sutherland sold her in 1936, William Doxford & Sons completed a new 4,982-ton cargo ship MV ''Peebles'' for Sutherland. She survived the Second World War and in 1951 Sutherland sold her to Westralian Farmers Transport who renamed her ''Swanstream''. In 1957 Westralian sold to J. Manners & Co. of

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

who renamed her ''San Fernando''. In 1965 Manners sold to her to Yong & Lee Timber who renamed her ''Phoenician Star''. She was scrapped at Hong Kong in 1967. ''Gracechurch'' was the first of two ships that Counties Ship Management named ''Mill Hill''. In 1947 CSM bought the 7,219-ton

Liberty ship Liberty ships were a class of cargo ship built in the United States during World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding Program. Though British in concept, the design was adopted by the United States for its simple, low-cost construction. Mass ...

SS ''Samdon'' and renamed her SS ''Mill Hill''. ''Samdon'' had been built by

New England Shipbuilding Corporation The New England Shipbuilding Corporation was a shipyard located in the city of South Portland, Maine, United States. The yard originated as two separate entities, the Todd-Bath Iron Shipbuilding Corporation and the South Portland Shipbuilding C ...

Portland, Maine Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maine and the seat of Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 in April 2020. The Greater Portland metropolitan area is home to over half a million people, the 104th-largest metropol ...

in 1943. In 1949 she was transferred from CSM to a new Rethymnis and Kulukundis company,

London and Overseas Freighters London & Overseas Freighters Ltd. (LOF) was an ocean-going merchant shipping company that for most of its history was based in the United Kingdom. Counties Ship Management In 1920 Manuel Kulukundis from the Aegean island of Kasos and his cous ...

, retaining the name ''Mill Hill''. In 1951 LOF sold her to new owners who renamed her ''Educator''. She was scrapped in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, Pennsylvania in 1961.

References

Sources & further reading

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gracechurch 1930 ships Maritime incidents in August 1940 Ships lost with all hands Ships of Counties Ship Management Ships sunk by German submarines in World War II Ships built on the River Wear World War II merchant ships of the United Kingdom World War II shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean