SS Primrose Hill
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SS ''Primrose Hill'' was a British CAM ship that saw action in
World War II 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 ...
, armed with a
catapult A catapult is a ballistic device used to launch a projectile a great distance without the aid of gunpowder or other propellants – particularly various types of ancient and medieval siege engines. A catapult uses the sudden release of stored p ...
on her bow to launch a
Hawker Sea Hurricane The Hawker Hurricane was a British single-seat fighter aircraft designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd. Some versions were built in Canada by the Canada Car and Foundry Co Ltd British variants Hurricane Mk I ; Hurricane Mk I ( ...
. She was completed by William Hamilton & Co in
Port Glasgow Port Glasgow ( gd, Port Ghlaschu, ) is the second-largest town in the Inverclyde council area of Scotland. The population according to the 1991 census for Port Glasgow was 19,426 persons and in the 2001 census was 16,617 persons. The most recen ...
on the
Firth of Clyde The Firth of Clyde is the mouth of the River Clyde. It is located on the west coast of Scotland and constitutes the deepest coastal waters in the British Isles (it is 164 metres deep at its deepest). The firth is sheltered from the Atlantic ...
in September 1941. ''Primrose Hill'' was managed 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 ...
Ltd of London (CSM), an offshoot of the Rethymnis & Kulukundis
shipbroking Shipbroking is a financial service, which forms part of the global shipping industry. Shipbrokers are specialist intermediaries/negotiators (i.e. brokers) between shipowners and charterers who use ships to transport cargo, or between buyers and ...
company. ''Primrose Hill'' was CSM's second CAM ship, in effect replacing ''
Michael E SS ''Michael E'' was a cargo ship that was built in 1941. She was the first British Catapult Aircraft Merchant ship: a merchant ship fitted with a rocket catapult to launch a single Hawker Hurricane fighter to defend a convoy against long-rang ...
'' that had been torpedoed and sunk three months previously on her maiden voyage. ''Primrose Hill''s navigation equipment included an
echo sounding Echo sounding or depth sounding is the use of sonar for ranging, normally to determine the depth of water (bathymetry). It involves transmitting acoustic waves into water and recording the time interval between emission and return of a pulse; ...
device and a
gyrocompass A gyrocompass is a type of non-magnetic compass which is based on a fast-spinning disc and the rotation of the Earth (or another planetary body if used elsewhere in the universe) to find geographical direction automatically. The use of a gyroc ...
. Primrose Hill SS was a British Cargo Steamer of 7,628 tons built in 1941 by William Hamilton's & Co, Port Glasgow, Yard no 448 for Ruthi, Kuluku.


Propulsion

''Primrose Hill'' had six corrugated furnaces that heated two 225 lbf/in2 single-ended boilers with a combined heating surface of . The boilers raised steam for a 443
NHP Horsepower (hp) is a unit of measurement of power, or the rate at which work is done, usually in reference to the output of engines or motors. There are many different standards and types of horsepower. Two common definitions used today are the ...
triple-expansion 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 h ...
that had cylinders of , and diameter by stroke. The engine was built by David Rowan & Co Ltd, Glasgow.


Sinking

On 16 October 1942 ''Primrose Hill'' sailed from Glasgow with a mixed cargo including 3,000 tons of coal, 1,796 tons of general cargo, war material and 11 aircraft. She was as a member of convoy ON 139 for
Takoradi Sekondi-Takoradi is a city in Ghana comprising the twin cities of Sekondi and Takoradi. It is the capital of Sekondi – Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly and the Western Region of Ghana. Sekondi-Takoradi is the region's largest city and an indus ...
on the
Gold Coast Gold Coast may refer to: Places Africa * Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana: ** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642) ** Dutch G ...
and
Apapa Apapa is a Local Government Area in Lagos, located to the west of Lagos Island. Apapa contains a number of ports and terminals operated by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), including the major port of Lagos State and Lagos Port Complex (LPC ...
in
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. The convoy dispersed, and at 2118 hrs on 29 October she was northwest of the
Cape Verde Islands , national_anthem = () , official_languages = Portuguese , national_languages = Cape Verdean Creole , capital = Praia , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , demonym ...
when '' UD-5'', a submarine that the
Kriegsmarine The (, ) was the navy of Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The was one of three official branches, along with the a ...
had captured from the
Dutch Navy The Royal Netherlands Navy ( nl, Koninklijke Marine, links=no) is the naval force of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. During the 17th century, the navy of the Dutch Republic (1581–1795) was one of the most powerful naval forces in the world an ...
after the surrender of the Netherlands, fired two torpedoes at her. One missed but the other hit ''Primrose Hill'' in her engine room killing the second engineer, a greaser and a
fireman A firefighter is a first responder and rescuer extensively trained in firefighting, primarily to extinguish hazardous fires that threaten life, property, and the environment as well as to rescue people and in some cases or jurisdictions also a ...
, and setting the fuel oil in her bunkers on fire. Two of her lifeboats and a number of liferafts were destroyed by the concussion of the blast. The Master, eight gunners and surviving 37 officers and men abandoned ship in four lifeboats and moved to windward as the fire spread throughout the ship. The officers destroyed their uniforms to conceal their identity. ''UD-5'' surfaced and her commander, Bruno Mahn, questioned the survivors asking for the Master to come aboard ''UD-5''. The survivors claimed all their officers had been killed in the explosion and fire. Mahn clearly did not believe them, but being unable to identify his quarry he gave up and ''UD-5'' left the survivors in the boats. ''Primrose Hill'' remained afloat so at 2246 hrs ''UD-5'' fired her deck gun, hitting the steamship near her bridge. She continued to float so at 2313 hrs ''UD-5'' fired her deck gun again, hitting ''Primrose Hills stern. She broke her back and sank at 2345 hrs.


Eight days in the lifeboats

The master and third officer had rescued
sextant A sextant is a doubly reflecting navigation instrument that measures the angular distance between two visible objects. The primary use of a sextant is to measure the angle between an astronomical object and the horizon for the purposes of celes ...
s, a
chronometer A clock or a timepiece is a device used to measure and indicate time. The clock is one of the oldest human inventions, meeting the need to measure intervals of time shorter than the natural units such as the day, the lunar month and the ...
, charts and navigation books from ''Primrose Hills
bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...
. However, the boats proved to be very short of rations and water for the number of men who had survived. On the morning of 30 October the four lifeboats, keeping close together, set sail and steered eastwards for the Cape Verde Islands. However, by the morning of 31 October wind and currents had taken them westwards. On 1 November they were further west and No. 2 lifeboat lost her rudder. One lifeboat was steel and sailed much worse than the three wooden ones, so on 2 November her occupants transferred themselves and her rations to the three wooden boats and cut the steel one adrift. On 3 November the remaining boats had been carried further west so they lowered sail and tried rowing, but found the wind and current too strong. At 0300 hrs on 4 November another U-boat found the boats, questioned the crew and then sailed on. Overnight to 5 November the boats managed to row a little eastwards. On 6 November the survivors were just giving up hope of making headway against the current towards Cape Verde and were turning to sail with the current in the opposite direction to Brazil, when after 1430 hrs the survivors sighted the
Elder Dempster Lines Elder Dempster Lines was a UK shipping company that traded from 1932 to 2000, but had its origins in the mid-19th century. Founders Alexander Elder Alexander Elder was born in Glasgow in 1834. He was the son of David Elder, who for many ye ...
cargo ship MV ''Sansu'' about away heading southwards. The crew burned smoke flares to attract the ''Sansus attention and rowed to meet her. At about 1530 hrs the ''Sansu'' picked up the survivors and on 11 November landed them at
Freetown Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, educational and p ...
in
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.


Replacement ship

In 1947 CSM took over the 1943-built
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 ...
and renamed her ''Primrose Hill''. In 1949 she was transferred to another Rethymnis & Kulukundis company,
London & 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 Sea, Aegean island of Kasos a ...
Ltd, who renamed her ''London Vendor''. LOF sold her in 1951 to new owners who registered her in
Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...
as a
flag of convenience Flag of convenience (FOC) is a business practice whereby a ship's owners register a merchant ship in a ship register of a country other than that of the ship's owners, and the ship flies the civil ensign of that country, called the flag state ...
and renamed her ''Cabanos''. In 1963 she passed to new Panamanian owners who renamed her ''Thebean''. She was registered in Greece from 1964 and was scrapped at
Onomichi is a city located in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan, facing the Inland Sea. The city was founded on April 1, 1898. As of April 30, 2016, the city has an estimated population of 141,811 and a population density of 497.8 persons per km2. The total a ...
, Japan in 1968.


References


Further reading

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Primrose Hill 1941 ships CAM ships Ships built on the River Clyde Maritime incidents in October 1942 Ships of Counties Ship Management Ships sunk by German submarines in World War II Steamships of the United Kingdom World War II shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean World War II merchant ships of the United Kingdom