''Empire Broadsword'' was a Type C1-S-AY-1 infantry landing ship built in 1943 as ''Cape Marshall''. She was renamed ''Empire Broadsword'' before completion and entering into service for the

Ministry of War Transport The Ministry of War Transport (MoWT) was a department of the British Government formed early in the Second World War to control transportation policy and resources. It was formed by merging the Ministry of Shipping and the Ministry of Transport ...

(MoWT). She had a short career, entering service in December 1943 and being sunk by a mine in July 1944.

Construction

The ship was built by

Consolidated Steel Corporation Consolidated Steel Corporation (formed 18 December 1928) was an American steel and shipbuilding business. Consolidated built ships during World War II in two locations: Wilmington, California and Orange, Texas. It was created in 1929 by the mer ...

, Wilmington,

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

as yard number 348. She was launched on 16 August 1943 as ''Cape Marshall''. She was long, with a beam of and a depth of . She was propelled by two steam turbines which drove a single screw via double reduction gearing. The steam turbine were manufactured by Westinghouse Electrical and Manufacturing Corp,

Essington, Pennsylvania Tinicum Township, more popularly known as "Tinicum Island" or "The Island", is a township in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. The population was 4,091 at the 2010 census, down from 4,353 at the 2000 census. Included within the townships boundarie ...

Career

The ship was transferred under the terms of

lend lease Lend-Lease, formally the Lend-Lease Act and introduced as An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States (), was a policy under which the United States supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and other Allied nations with food, oil, ...

shortly after being completed in 1943 under the name ''Empire Broadsword''. She was chartered by the MoWT, and was operated under the management of

Cunard White Star Line Cunard-White Star Line, Ltd, was a British shipping line which existed between 1934 and 1949. History The company was created to control the joint shipping assets of the Cunard Line and the White Star Line after both companies experienced fin ...

''Empire Broadsword'' was mined and sunk off

Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...

on July 2, 1944, while supporting the allied invasion of Europe. Her position is . Seventy survivors were rescued by . The wreck lies on its starboard side in of water and is now a dive site. Those lost on ''Empire Broadsword'' 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 ...

, 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 * Isomaltoolig ...

. ''Empire Broadsword'' had the UK

Official Number Official numbers are ship identifier numbers assigned to merchant ships by their 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 have sometimes ...

169737 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 ...

MYMJ.

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Empire Broadsword Type C1-S ships Ships built in Los Angeles 1943 ships Empire ships Ministry of War Transport ships Steamships of the United Kingdom Troop ships of the United Kingdom World War II shipwrecks in the English Channel Maritime incidents in July 1944 Ships sunk by mines