SS ''Empire Bunting'' was a

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 ...

which was built in 1919. She saw service between the wars under the US flag and was transferred to the UK Ministry of War Transport in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. She made a number of cross-Atlantic voyages, often sailing in convoys. She ended her career by being sunk as a blockship on the

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 ...

coast, supporting the allied landings there in 1944.

Description

''Empire Bunting'' was built as ''Eelbeck'' by the shipbuilding firm of Skinner & Eddy Corporation,

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

, Washington, and launched on 28 June 1919 and completed in August 1919 for service with

United States Shipping Board The United States Shipping Board (USSB) was established as an emergency agency by the 1916 Shipping Act (39 Stat. 729), on September 7, 1916. The United States Shipping Board's task was to increase the number of US ships supporting the World War ...

(USSB). She was long, with a beam of and a depth of . She was propelled by a

triple expansion steam engine A compound steam engine unit is a type of steam engine where steam is expanded in two or more stages. A typical arrangement for a compound engine is that the steam is first expanded in a high-pressure ''(HP)'' cylinder, then having given up he ...

which had cylinders of , and bore by stroke. The engine was built by Hooven, Owens & Rentschler,

Hamilton, Ohio Hamilton is a city in and the county seat of Butler County, Ohio, United States. Located north of Cincinnati, Hamilton is the second largest city in the Greater Cincinnati area and the 10th largest city in Ohio. The population was 63,399 at th ...

. The ship had a speed of .

Career

''Eelbecks port of registry was Seattle. She sailed for the USSB until the board's abolition, and by 1937 was sailing for its successor organisation, the

United States Maritime Commission The United States Maritime Commission (MARCOM) was an independent executive agency of the U.S. federal government that was created by the Merchant Marine Act of 1936, which was passed by Congress on June 29, 1936, and was abolished on May 24, 195 ...

. ''Eelbeck'' continued to sail under the American flag after the outbreak of the

, during the period of American neutrality. In 1941, with the American entry to the war, ''Eelbeck'' was transferred to the ownership of the Ministry of War Transport, which assigned her to be operated by the firm of Headlam & Sons, under the name of ''Empire Bunting''. Her port of registry was changed to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. ''Empire Bunting'' went on to sail in a considerable number of convoys across the North Atlantic, often carrying scrap steel or general cargo to Britain from Canada or the United States. (Enter search term 'Empire Bunting') ;SC 38 Convoy SC 38 departed

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

on 22 July 1941 and arrived at

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

on 8 August. ''Empire Bunting'' was carrying a cargo of scrap

steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...

. She was forced to return to St John's after she collided with the Greek merchant ship ''Dimitrios Chandris''. ;SC 121

Convoy SC 121 Convoy SC 121 was the 121st of the numbered series of World War II Slow Convoys of merchant ships from Sydney, Cape Breton Island to Liverpool. The ships departed New York City 23 February 1943; and were met by the Mid-Ocean Escort Force Grou ...

departed

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

on 23 February 1943 and arrived at Liverpool on 14 March. ''Empire Bunting'' was one of three ships which joined the convoy from St. John's,

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 ...

. She was carrying a general cargo bound for the Clyde. On 11 March, her steering failed and she arrived at Liverpool under tow. ;HX 254 Convoy HX 254 departed New York on 27 August 1943 and arrived at Liverpool on 12 September. ''Empire Bunting'' was carrying a general cargo bound for Glasgow. She put into St John's with an engine defect which was causing her to produce heavy smoke and run at reduced speed. In early 1944 she was reassigned to be operated by J&J Denholm Ltd, but in February she was bought by the Admiralty. She made her last wartime voyage as part of one of the Corn cob convoys, sailing from

Poole Poole () is a large coastal town and seaport in Dorset, on the south coast of England. The town is east of Dorchester and adjoins Bournemouth to the east. Since 1 April 2019, the local authority is Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Counc ...

to the

Seine Bay The Baie de Seine (Bay of the Seine River) is a bay in northern France. Geography It is a wide, rectangular inlet of the English Channel, approximately 100 kilometres (east-west) by 45 kilometres, bounded in the west by the Cotentin Peninsula, in ...

in early June 1944. She was scuttled at

Juno Beach Juno or Juno Beach was one of five beaches of the Allied invasion of German-occupied France in the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944 during the Second World War. The beach spanned from Courseulles, a village just east of the British beach Gold ...

on 9 June 1944, forming one of the

corn cobs Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...

designed to shelter the landing beaches for the invasion forces. ''Empire Bunting'' was salvaged in 1947, towed to Strangford Lough and broken up there.

Official Numbers, code letters and call signs

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 * Isomaltooligosa ...

. ''Eelbeck'' had the US Official Number 218667. ''Empire Bunting'' had the UK

Official Number Official numbers are ship identifier numbers assigned to merchant ships by their flag state, 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 hav ...

168163. ''Eelbeck'' 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 ...

LSGC until 1934, when they were replaced with the

Call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assigne ...

KINQ. ''Empire Bunting '' used the call sign GMKM.

Notes

References

* * * * (Enter search term 'Empire Bunting') {{DEFAULTSORT:Empire Bunting 1919 ships Design 1105 ships of the Ministry of War Transport Empire ships Maritime incidents in June 1944 Merchant ships of the United States Scuttled vessels of the United Kingdom Ships built by Skinner & Eddy Steamships of the United Kingdom Steamships of the United States Ships sunk as breakwaters