HMS St Aubin (W18)

Last updated

History
Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svgUnited Kingdom
NameHMS St Aubin
Ordered18 April 1918 [1]
Builder Harland and Wolff, Govan
Laid down1918
Launched27 June 1918
CommissionedFebruary 1940
Decommissioned1943
RenamedTsze-Hong (1947)
FateSunk on 9 November 1950
General characteristics
Class and type Saint-class tug
Tonnage468  gross register tons  (GRT)
Displacement820 long tons (830 t)
Length135 ft 5 in (41.28 m)]
Beam29 ft 6 in (8.99 m)
Draught13 ft 6 in (4.11 m)
Installed power
Propulsion
Speed12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement37 [2]
Armament

HMS St Aubin was a Saint-class tug launched in 1918.

It was owned by the Admiralty until 12 April 1924, when it was sold to Shanghai Tug and Lighter Limited. [3] On 8 March 1935, she was involved in a collision with SS Kiang Shun and was sunk in the Huangpu River. The sunken ship was not considered a significant threat to navigation, and was only raised more than six months later, on 25 September. On 4 July 1936, she was once again sunk in a collision with the naval cadet ship Ping An and SS Eugenia Chandris, and had to be raised. [4]

In February 1940, the ship was requisitioned as a minesweeper [3] and served under the Hong Kong Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, where she was commanded by Lieutenant-Commander Peter Dulley. [5] [6] From 1943, the ship was laid up, until 1946 when she was returned to her owner. In November 1946, she was transferred to Yee Kee Tug & Lighter Co., and in 1947 she was renamed Tsze-Hong. In 1948, she was once again transferred to Chinese Maritime Trust Ltd. She was sunk off Taiwan on 9 November 1950. [3] [7]

Related Research Articles

HMS <i>Archer</i> (D78) Long Island-class escort carrier

HMS Archer was a Long Island-class escort carrier built by the United States in 1939–1940 and operated by the Royal Navy during World War II. She was built as the cargo ship Mormacland, but was converted to an escort carrier and renamed HMS Archer. Her transmission was a constant cause of problems which led to her being withdrawn from front-line service. She was used as a stores ship and then as an accommodation ship before a refit and subsequent use as a merchant aircraft ferry ship, Empire Lagan.

Six ships and a naval station of the Royal Navy have been called HMS Tamar, after the River Tamar in South West England:

HMS <i>Carlisle</i> (D67) Royal Navy C-class light cruiser

HMS Carlisle was a C-class light cruiser of the Royal Navy, named after the English city of Carlisle. She was the name ship of the Carlisle group of the C-class of cruisers. Carlisle was credited with shooting down eleven Axis aircraft during the Second World War and was the top scoring anti-aircraft ship in the Royal Navy.

HMS <i>Folkestone</i> (L22) Sloop of the Royal Navy

HMS Folkestone was a Hastings-class sloop of the Royal Navy that saw action in World War II. She was built by Swan Hunter and Wigham Richardson Ltd. of Wallsend-on-Tyne, laid down on 21 May 1929 and launched on 12 February 1930. She was commissioned on 25 June 1930 under the pennant number L22/U22.

Cameron-class steamship

The Cameron-class steamships were a class of UK cargo twin-screw steamships. They were designed for Clan Line and were also used by Scottish Shire Line and the Royal Navy.

HMS <i>LST 3519</i>

HMS LST 3519 was a Landing Ship, Tank of the Royal Navy, entering service during the last months of the Second World War. She was chartered for civilian service as the Empire Baltic from 1946, serving as an early RO-RO ferry until the navy suspended the charter and requisitioned the ship during the Suez Crisis in 1956. She briefly returned to normal service, but was retired soon after and was eventually sold for breaking up.

SS <i>Dieppe</i> (1905)

Dieppe was a steam passenger ferry that was built in 1905 for the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway. She was requisitioned during the First World War for use as a troopship and later as a hospital ship HMS Dieppe, returning to her owners postwar. She passed to the Southern Railway on 1 January 1923. In 1933 she was sold to W E Guinness and converted to a private diesel yacht, Rosaura. She was requisitioned in the Second World War for use as an armed boarding vessel, HMS Rosaura. She struck a mine and sank off Tobruk, Libya on 18 March 1941.

SS Empire Chamois was a 5,864 GRT cargo ship which was built in 1918 by Ames Shipbuilding and Drydock Co, Seattle. She was ordered by the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique but was requisitioned by the United States Navy and commissioned as USS West Mount with the pennant number ID-3202 in 1918. She was decommissioned in May 1919 and passed to the United States Shipping Board (USSB) as SS Westmount. In 1927 she was sold to the Dimon Steamship Corporation and renamed SS Pacific Redwood. She returned to the USSB in 1932 and passed to the United States Maritime Commission (USMC) in 1937. In 1940, she was passed to the Ministry of Shipping, passing to the Ministry of War Transport in 1941 and being renamed SS Empire Chamois. She was sold to Astral Shipping Co Ltd in 1946 and renamed SS Granview. In 1949 she was sold to the Compagnia Maritime del Este, Panama and renamed SS Chamois, serving until 1958 when she was scrapped. She was the last Ames-built ship afloat.

HMS <i>Pandora</i> (N42) Submarine of the Royal Navy

HMS Pandora was a British Parthian-class submarine commissioned in 1930 and lost in 1942 during the Second World War. This class was the first to be fitted with Mark VIII torpedoes. On 4 July 1940 she torpedoed and sank the French aviso Rigault de Genouilly off the Algerian coast. In an extension of the Lend-Lease program, Pandora, along with three other British and French submarines, was overhauled at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in the United States. She was sunk on 1 April 1942 by Junkers Ju 87 aircraft from Sturzkampfgeschwader 3 at the Valletta dockyard, Malta.

HMS <i>Foxglove</i> Minesweeper of the Royal Navy

HMS Foxglove was an Acacia-class minesweeping sloop of the Royal Navy. She saw service in World War I and World War II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allied Chinese Ships</span>

The terms Allied Chinese Ships and Allied China Fleet refer to 32 vessels of the Hong Kong-based China Navigation Company requisitioned by the Royal Navy and the Royal Australian Navy during World War II. Following the Battle of Singapore in early 1942, many of the requisitioned ships joined the Allied retreat to Australia. Six were acquired by the Royal Australian Navy; four of these were commissioned as auxiliary warships, while two served as Victualing Supply Issuing Ships.

The Hong Kong Naval Volunteer Force (HKNVR) was a volunteer navy established in 1933. In 1939, it was granted the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve status and was renamed Hong Kong Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (HKRNVR). In 1959, it was renamed the Hong Kong Royal Naval Reserve (HKRNR) after bring absorbed directly into the Royal Naval Reserve. It was disbanded in 1967.

SS Tai Hing was a river steamer built in 1927. In 1940, she was given to the Hong Kong Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (HKRNVR) and replaced HMS Cornflower as the headquarters of the unit. She was renamed HMS Cornflower after its predecessor. To avoid confusion, the ship was sometimes referred to as HMS Cornflower II.

HMS <i>St Sampson</i> (W26)

HMS St Sampson was a Saint-class tug launched in 1919.

HMS Tern was a river gunboat built for the Royal Navy by Yarrow in 1927.

References

  1. "32. Miscellaneous patrol vessels". navel-history.net. 2015. Archived from the original on 18 February 2020. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
  2. 1 2 Banham, Tony (2003). Not the Slightest Chance: The Defence of Hong Kong, 1941. UBC Press. p. 325. ISBN   978-0-7748-1045-6.
  3. 1 2 3 "ST AUBIN". Caledonian Maritime Research Trust. Archived from the original on 25 January 2021. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
  4. "CLEARING THE WAY TO SALVAGE TUG; St. Aubin Bound To Have Been Badly Gashed; RAISING TO BE DONE SPEEDILY". Hong Kong Daily Press . Hong Kong. 11 July 1936. p. 12.
  5. The Navy List Containing List of Ships, Establishments, and Officers of the Fleet. H.M. Government. 1941. p. 1009. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
  6. "Royal Navy & Royal Air force". Hong Kong War Diary. Archived from the original on 17 February 2020. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
  7. "HMS St Aubin". Harland and Wolff. Archived from the original on 9 July 2018. Retrieved 25 January 2021.