''Empire Byng'' was a

heavy lift ship A heavy-lift ship is a vessel designed to move very large loads that cannot be handled by normal ships. They are of two types: *''Semi-submersible'' ships that take on water ballast to allow the load—usually another vessel—to be floated o ...

which was built in 1944 for the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT). Completed in May 1945, she was sold in 1951 and renamed ''Peter Dal II''. Further sales saw her renamed ''Benwyvis'', ''Southern Comet'' and ''Marites''. In November 1970, she ran aground at

Manila Bay Manila Bay ( fil, Look ng Maynila) is a natural harbor that serves the Port of Manila (on Luzon), in the Philippines. Strategically located around the capital city of the Philippines, Manila Bay facilitated commerce and trade between the Phili ...

in Typhoon Patsy. ''Marites'' was scrapped in 1972.

Description

''Empire Byng'' was built by Greenock Dockyard Co,

Greenock Greenock (; sco, Greenock; gd, Grianaig, ) is a town and administrative centre in the Inverclyde council areas of Scotland, council area in Scotland, United Kingdom and a former burgh of barony, burgh within the Counties of Scotland, historic ...

for the MoWT. She was yard number 458. ''Empire Byng'' was launched on 16 November 1944 and completed in May 1945. The ship was long, with a beam of and a depth of . She was propelled by a

steam turbine A steam turbine is a machine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Charles Parsons in 1884. Fabrication of a modern steam turbin ...

which drove an electric motor and a single screw. The turbine was built by General Electric Co Ltd,

Erith Erith () is an area in south-east London, England, east of Charing Cross. Before the creation of Greater London in 1965, it was in the historical county of Kent. Since 1965 it has formed part of the London Borough of Bexley. It lies nort ...

. She had a GRT of of 4,418, and a DWT of 9,175.

Career

''Empire Byng'' was initially operated under the management of P & O Steam Navigation Co Ltd. Her port of registry was Greenock. Shortly after the end of 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 ...

, ''Empire Byng'' was used to deliver a number of MoWT tugs. ''TID 125'', ''TID 126'', ''TID 131'', ''TID 132'' and ''TID 133'' were all delivered from

Bromborough Dock Bromborough Dock was situated on the River Mersey at Bromborough, on the Wirral Peninsula, England. Owned by the manufacturer Lever Brothers (and its successor Unilever), it served the company's factory at Port Sunlight. The facility was once th ...

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. ''Empire Byng'' departed on 22 May 1945 and arrived on 19 June. In 1946, management of ''Empire Byng'' was transferred to Dalhousie Steam & Motorshipping Co Ltd,

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 ...

. In 1946, ''Empire Byng'' was sold to Dalhousie Steam & Motorshipping and was renamed ''Peter Dal II''. She was operated under the management of Nomikos (London) Ltd. In 1954, ''Peter Dal II'' was sold to Novocastria Shipping Co Ltd, remaining under the management of Nomikos. In 1955, ''Peter Dal II'' was sold to Ben Line Steamers Ltd and renamed ''Benwyvis''. She served with the

Ben Line The Ben Line or Ben Line Steamers, Limited was a Scottish shipping company based in Leith, Scotland founded in 1825 which was primarily involved in the Far East to Europe trade. A private company, it was largely owned by members of the Thomso ...

until 1963 when she was sold to Bacong Shipping SA,

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 ...

and was renamed ''Southern Comet''. She was operated under the management of Southern Industrial Projects Inc,

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...

. In 1968, ''Southern Comet'' was sold to the People's Bank and Trust Company,

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

and renamed ''Marites''. On 19 November 1970, ''Marites'' was driven aground in

during Typhoon Patsy. She was refloated on 29 November, and laid up at South Harbour, Manila. In 1972, ''Marites'' was sold for scrap, arriving at

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

on 8 February 1972. In 1984, ''Southern Comet'' was mentioned in an

appeal In law, an appeal is the process in which cases are reviewed by a higher authority, where parties request a formal change to an official decision. Appeals function both as a process for error correction as well as a process of clarifying and ...

case relating to repairs done by the Pioneer Iron Works, Manila, who had not been paid for such work. The appeal was denied.

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 * Isomaltooligosa ...

. ''Empire Byng'', ''Peter Dal II'' and ''Benwyvis'' had the United Kingdom

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 ...

1695921. ''Empire Byng'' 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 ...

GFNY.

References

External links

Photo of ''Empire Byng''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Empire Byng 1944 ships Ships built on the River Clyde Empire ships Ministry of War Transport ships Steamships of the United Kingdom Merchant ships of the United Kingdom Steamships of Panama Merchant ships of Panama Steamships of the Philippines Merchant ships of the Philippines Maritime incidents in 1970 Dalhousie Steam and Motor Ship Company