SS Glentworth

History
United Kingdom
Name	SS Glentworth [1]
Owner	Dalgliesh Steam Shipping Co. Ltd., Newcastle-upon-Tyne [2]
Port of registry	Newcastle-upon-Tyne [2]
Builder	Hawthorn Leslie & Co, Newcastle-upon-Tyne [2]
Yard number	490 [1]
Launched	15 July 1920
Completed	November 1920 [2]
Out of service	1934 [1]
Identification	UK official number 144931 [2] code letters KHCD [2]
Fate	Sold [1]
Name	SS Box Hill [1]
Namesake	Box Hill, Surrey
Owner	Surrey Hill Steamship Co. Ltd. [3]
Operator	Counties Ship Management Co Ltd, London [1]
Port of registry	London [3]
Acquired	1934 [1]
Out of service	31 December 1939 [1]
Identification	UK official number 144931 [2] Call sign GDWN [3]
Fate	Sunk by mine
General characteristics
Class & type	Cargo ship [1]
Tonnage	5,677  GRT tonnage under deck 5,310 3,510  NRT [2]
Length	450.0 ft (137.2 m) [2] p/p
Beam	55.0 ft (16.8 m) [2]
Draught	25 feet 6+1⁄4 inches (7.78 m) [2]
Depth	26.4 ft (8.0 m) [2]
Installed power	620 NHP (as built); [2] 586 NHP (after 1934) [3]
Propulsion	Hawthorn Leslie reduction-geared turbine (as built); [2] Hawthorn Leslie 3-cylinder triple expansion steam engine (after 1934) [3]
Speed	11 knots (20 km/h) [1]
Crew	20 or 22 [1]

SS Glentworth was a shelter deck cargo steamship built in 1920 by Hawthorn Leslie & Co. in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England for R.S. Dalgliesh and Dalgliesh Steam Shipping Co. Ltd., also of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. ^[1] After the Great Depression affected UK merchant shipping in the first years of the 1930s, Dalgliesh sold Glentworth to a company controlled by Counties Ship Management (an offshoot of the Rethymnis & Kulukundis shipbroking company of London ^[4] ) who renamed her SS Box Hill. ^[1]

Details

The ship's stokehold had 12 corrugated furnaces with a combined grate area of 214 square feet (20 m²). ^[2] They heated three 200 lb_f/in² single-ended boilers with a combined heating surface of 8,655 square feet (804 m²). ^{[2] [3]} She was built as a turbine steamer: two steam turbines with a combined power output of 620 NHP drove the shaft to the single propeller by reduction gearing. ^[2] However, when she changed hands in 1934 she was re-engined with a Hawthorn Leslie 586 NHP three-cylinder triple expansion steam engine. ^[3] The conversion retained her original boilers, but her furnaces were converted to oil burning. ^[3]

The ship was equipped with direction finding equipment and radio. ^[2]

Loss

Late in 1939 Box Hill sailed from Saint John, New Brunswick bound for Hull with a cargo of 8,452 tons wheat. ^[1] On New Year's Eve she was in the North Sea 9 nautical miles (17 km) off the Humber lightship when she struck a German mine. ^[1] The explosion broke her back and she sank almost immediately with the loss of over half its crew. ^[1]

Box Hill was Counties Ship Management's first loss of the Second World War. CSM's losses continued until just a week before the surrender of Japan in August 1945, by which time the company had lost a total of 13 ships.

Both sections of Box Hill's wreck were a hazard to shipping and showed above the water. ^[1] In 1952 the Royal Navy dispersed her remains with high explosive and Admiralty charts now mark her position as a "foul" ground. ^[1]

References

1. Lettens, Jan; Racey, Carl (30 December 2010). "SS Box Hill [+1939]". The Wreck Site. Retrieved 25 May 2011.
2. Lloyd's Register of Shipping (PDF). London: Lloyd's Register. 1933. Retrieved 30 March 2013.
3. Lloyd's Register of Shipping (PDF). London: Lloyd's Register. 1934. Retrieved 30 March 2013.
4. Fenton, Roy (2006). "Counties Ship Management 1934–2007". LOF–News. p. 1. Archived from the original on 30 March 2010. Retrieved 26 July 2010.

Sources & further reading

• Sedgwick, Stanley (1993) [1992]. Kinnaird, Mark; O'Donoghue, K.J (eds.). London & Overseas Freighters, 1948–92: A Short History. World Ship Society. ISBN   0-905617-68-1.
• Sedgwick, Stanley; Sprake, R.F. (1977). London & Overseas Freighters Limited 1949–1977. World Ship Society. ISBN   0905617037.