SS Empire Tower

History
United Kingdom
Name	SS Roxburgh[1]
Namesake	Roxburgh, Scotland
Owner	B.J. Sutherland & Co.[1]
Port of registry	Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Builder	Burntisland Shipbuilding Company Ltd, Fife, Scotland[2]
Launched	March 1935[2]
Identification	UK official number 161579[2] Call sign GYFP[2]
Fate	Sold 1937[2]
History
Name	SS Tower Field[1]
Owner	Tower Steamship Co.
Operator	Counties Ship Management, London[1]
Port of registry	London
Out of service	19 October 1941[1]
Identification	UK official number 161579[2] Call sign GYFP[2]
Fate	Ran aground & broke in two[3]
Name	SS Empire Tower[1]
Owner	Ministry of War Transport[1]
Operator	Counties Ship Management, London[1]
Port of registry	London
In service	December 1942[1]
Out of service	5 March 1943[1]
Identification	UK official number 161579[2]
Fate	Torpedoed and sunk by U-130, 5 March 1943[1]
General characteristics
Type	cargo ship[2]
Tonnage	4,378 GRT[2] tonnage under deck 3,927[2] 2,636 NRT[2]
Length	372.0 ft (113.4 m)[2]
Beam	52.4 ft (16.0 m)[2]
Draught	24 ft 5 in (7.44 m)[2]
Depth	25.2 ft (7.7 m)[2]
Installed power	335 NHP
Propulsion	triple expansion steam engine;[2] single screw
Crew	39 plus 6 DEMS gunners[1]

SS Empire Tower was a British 4,378 GRT cargo ship built in 1935 and sunk by enemy action in 1943.

She was built by the Burntisland Shipbuilding Company Ltd. in Fife, Scotland. The North Eastern Marine Engineering Co. Ltd. of Sunderland built her 335 NHP three-cylinder triple expansion steam engine.^[2] She had six corrugated furnaces with a combined heating surface of 117 square feet (11 m²) heat to heat her three 180 lb_f/in² single-ended boilers, which had a combined heating surface of 5,445 square feet (506 m²).^[2] She was fitted with direction finding equipment.^[2]

She was launched as SS Roxburgh for B.J. Sutherland and Company of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.^[1] In 1937 the Tower Hill Steamship Company, an offshoot of Counties Ship Management, bought her and renamed her SS Tower Field.^[1]

Damage and repair

On 10 May 1941 Tower Field was steaming in ballast from London to Newcastle when a German aircraft attacked and damaged her off the Outer Dowsing Buoy in the Thames Estuary.^[3] She was repaired and returned to service.^[3]

On 19 October 1941 she was entering Workington Channel off Hull with a cargo of iron ore when she ran aground and fractured her hull.^[3] She broke in two but her cargo was discharged and she was refloated and repaired.^[3]

The Ministry of War Transport took her over and renamed her SS Empire Tower but kept her under CSM management.^[2] She returned to service in December 1942.^[3]

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Approximate position of Empire Tower's wreck

Sinking

Early in 1943 Empire Tower, under Captain David John Williams OBE, joined Convoy XK-2 from Gibraltar to the UK.^[3] On 5 March the German Type IX submarine^[4] U-130 attacked the convoy and sank Empire Tower, Fidra, Ger-y-Bryn and Trefusis.^[3][5] Empire Tower sank within a minute and Captain Williams, six gunners and 35 crew were lost.^[3] The Royal Navy armed trawler HMS Loch Oskaig rescued three survivors and landed them at Londonderry,^[3] Northern Ireland.

One week later, on 12 March, a depth charge attack by US Navy destroyer USS Champlin west of the Azores sank U-130 with the loss of all 53 hands.^[4]

References

1. Allen, Tony; Vleggeert, Nico (29 January 2010). "SS Empire Tower [+1943]". The Wreck Site. Retrieved 31 May 2011.
2. Lloyd's Register, Steamships and Motorships (PDF). London: Lloyd's Register. 1943. Retrieved 30 March 2013.
3. Helgason, Guðmundur (1995–2010). "Empire Tower". uboat.net. Guðmundur Helgason. Retrieved 31 May 2011.
4. Helgason, Guðmundur (1995–2010). "U-130". uboat.net. Guðmundur Helgason. Retrieved 31 May 2011.
5. Slader, John (1988). The Red Duster at War. London: William Kimber & Co Ltd. p. 253. ISBN 0-7183-0679-1.

43.50°N 14.46°W / 43.50; -14.46