PS ''Portsdown'' was a passenger vessel built for the
Southern Railway in 1928. She was one of the civilian ships that participated in the
Dunkirk evacuation
The Dunkirk evacuation, codenamed Operation Dynamo and also known as the Miracle of Dunkirk, or just Dunkirk, was the evacuation of more than 338,000 Allied soldiers during the Second World War from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, in the ...
in 1940 and was sunk by a
naval mine a year later.
History
The ship was built by Caledon Shipbuilding of Dundee and launched on 24 March 1928.
''Portsdown'' was retained on the Portsmouth to Ryde run during the
Second World War along with her sister ship . However, on 1 June 1940, she was employed as a naval transport ship and went unarmed to
Dunkirk
Dunkirk (french: Dunkerque ; vls, label=French Flemish, Duunkerke; nl, Duinkerke(n) ; , ;) is a commune in the department of Nord in northern France.[Ramsgate
Ramsgate is a seaside resort, seaside town in the district of Thanet District, Thanet in east Kent, England. It was one of the great English seaside towns of the 19th century. In 2001 it had a population of about 40,000. In 2011, according to t ...]
with 618 men. ''Portsdown'' hit a mine on 20 September 1941 at
Spithead and sank with the loss of 23 lives
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Portsdown
1928 ships
Steamships of the United Kingdom
Paddle steamers of the United Kingdom
Ships built in Dundee
Ships of the Southern Railway (UK)
Maritime incidents in September 1941