SS ''Bury'' was a passenger and cargo vessel completed for Britain's Great Central Railway in 1911. ''Bury'' was employed as a packet boat for the company between

Harwich Harwich is a town in Essex, England, and one of the Haven ports on the North Sea coast. It is in the Tendring district. Nearby places include Felixstowe to the north-east, Ipswich to the north-west, Colchester to the south-west and Clacton-on- ...

and the Hook of Holland for most of her career. During the Second World War ''Bury'' was outfitted as a convoy rescue ship.

History

''Bury'' was built by Earle's Shipbuilding of Hull and launched in 1910. She was one of an order for four ships, the others being , and . In 1914 she was in Hamburg at the outbreak of the First World War and the crew were taken prisoner of war and detained until the end of hostilities. The stewardesses were released early in 1914 after representation of the Railway Company through the American Consul in Hamburg. 1923 she transferred to the

London and North Eastern Railway The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) was the second largest (after LMS) of the " Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It operated from 1 January 1923 until nationalisation on 1 January 1948. At th ...

and then in 1935 to

Associated Humber Lines Associated Humber Lines (AHL) was created in 1935 to manage the services of various railway controlled shipping lines including port activities in the Humber area of the United Kingdom. The ownership of the respective vessels did not transfer to A ...

. On 23 July 1936 she was in collision with the German steamer ''Virgilia'' in the River Elbe. The ''Virgilia'' sank and the crew of the ''Bury'' rescued the German crew. In 1941 ''Bury'' was taken up by the Rescue Service for conversion as a convoy rescue ship. She was suited for conversion for rescue service as she had a low freeboard and plenty of accommodation. She was fitted with deck platforms for landing survivors, a well-stocked sickbay with two surgeon-doctors and a sick-berth attendant, and supplies of blankets and clothing. She was equipped with two motor lifeboats, and carried

HF/DF High-frequency direction finding, usually known by its abbreviation HF/DF or nickname huff-duff, is a type of radio direction finder (RDF) introduced in World War II. High frequency (HF) refers to a radio band that can effectively communicate over ...

equipment for locating ships in distress. Entering service in December 1941 ''Bury'' sailed with 48 convoys and rescued 237 survivors during the war. In May 1942, on her 4th voyage as a rescue ship, ''Bury'' left Liverpool as part of

Convoy ON 92 Convoy ON 92 was a trade convoy of merchant ships during the Second World War. It was the 92nd of the numbered series of ON convoys Outbound from the British Isles to North America. The ships departed from Liverpool on 6 May 1942Hague, p. 158 an ...

which was attacked by

Wolfpack Hecht ''Hecht'' (English: "Pike") was the name of two " wolfpacks" of German U-boats that operated during World War II. First wolfpack "Hecht' The first wolfpack code-named ''Hecht'', comprising three U-boats, operated east of Iceland from 27 January ...

on 11 May 1942. She collected 178 survivors from three different ships in the convoy, taking them to St John's in

Newfoundland 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 ...

.ON 92 at warsailors.com
retrieved 15 October 2022 The ship was sent for scrapping in June 1958.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bury 1910 ships Steamships of the United Kingdom Ships built on the Humber Ships of the Great Central Railway Ships of the London and North Eastern Railway Ships of Associated Humber Lines