SS War Toronto

Last updated
SS War Toronto
War Toronto 1918-10-26.jpg
Launching in 1918 [1]
History
NameWar Toronto
Owner Shipping Controller
OperatorHansen Brothers & Company, Ltd, Cardiff
Builder Toronto Dry Dock & Ship Building Co. Ltd., Toronto
Yard number2
Launched26 October 1918
Out of service19 November 1919
IdentificationOfficial number 143388
FateBurnt on 20 November 1919
General characteristics
Tonnage2,328  GRT
Length261 feet (80 m)
Beam43.5 feet (13.3 m)
Draught19.6 feet (6.0 m)
Installed power1,000 horsepower (750 kW) steam engine (manufactured at Canadian Bridge Company Limited, Walkerville, Ontario) [2]
Propulsiontriple expansion engine, single shaft, 1 screw
Speed11 knots

SS War Toronto was a small freighter built in Toronto, in 1918, by Toronto Dry Dock & Ship Building Company Limited. [1] [3] She was one of 72 cargo vessels built under the authority of Canada's Imperial Munitions Board for wartime service in the First World War, and one of the 46 vessels with hulls built of wood. [4] She had a carrying capacity of 2,500 deadweight tons. Toronto Shipbuilding also constructed a sister wood-hull ship at the same time, the SS War Ontario.

The Montreal Gazette profiled the War Toronto on her first visit to Montreal, on 13 April 1919. [5] They described her as the last of 46 vessels built by order for the Imperial Munitions Board. On her voyage across the Atlantic to her owners, she carried lumber to Cardiff, Wales. She was delivered to the Shipping Controller on 23 April 1919, who assigned her to be managed by Hansen Brothers & Company, Ltd. She was employed carrying coal in civilian service. She ran aground off Agger, Jutland, on 19 September 1919 while on a voyage from the River Tyne to Sweden. Refloated, she was towed to Thisted for repairs, but was destroyed in a fire, while undergoing repairs on 20 November 1919.

Related Research Articles

USS <i>Astoria</i> (AK-8) Cargo ship of the United States Navy

The USS Astoria (SP-2005/AK-8) was a steel-hulled, coal-burning steam cargo ship of the United States Navy.

USS <i>Freedom</i> (ID-3024) Cargo and transport ship in the United States Navy during World War I

USS Freedom (ID-3024) was a cargo and transport ship in the United States Navy during World War I. Originally SS Wittekind for the North German Lloyd line, the ship also served as USAT Iroquois and USAT Freedom after being seized by the United States in 1917.

SS Cotopaxi was an Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFC) Design 1060 bulk carrier built for the United States Shipping Board (USSB) under the World War I emergency shipbuilding program. The ship, launched 15 November 1918, was named after the Cotopaxi stratovolcano of Ecuador. The ship arrived in Boston, 22 December 1918, to begin operations for the USSB, through 23 December 1919, when Cotopaxi was delivered to the Clinchfield Navigation Company under terms of sale.

SS <i>Liberty Glo</i>

SS Liberty Glo (ex-Scooba) was built at American International Shipbuilding at Hog Island in Philadelphia during World War I, but was completed after the November 1918 armistice. While off the Dutch coast in December 1919, it strucked a mine which broke her in two, but the aft part of the vessel remained afloat and was repaired. She served as a civilian cargo ship during World War II and was scrapped in 1950 in Baltimore.

SS <i>Mount Temple</i> Passenger cargo steamship built in 1901

Mount Temple was a passenger cargo steamship built in 1901 by Armstrong Whitworth & Company of Newcastle for Elder, Dempster & Co Ltd of Liverpool to operate as part of its Beaver Line. The ship was shortly afterwards acquired by the Canadian Pacific Railway. It was one of the first vessels to respond to the distress signals of RMS Titanic in 1912.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Collier (ship)</span> Bulk cargo ship to carry coal

A collier is a bulk cargo ship designed or used to carry coal. Early evidence of coal being transported by sea includes use of coal in London in 1306. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, coal was shipped from the River Tyne to London and other destinations. Other ports also exported coal – for instance the Old Quay in Whitehaven harbour was built in 1634 for the loading of coal. London became highly reliant on the delivery of coal by sea – Samuel Pepys expressed concern in the winter of 1666–67 that war with the Dutch would prevent a fleet of 200 colliers getting through. In 1795, 4,395 cargoes of coal were delivered to London. By 1824, this number had risen to about 7,000; by 1839, it was over 9,000. The trade continued to the end of the twentieth century, with the last cargo of coal leaving the Port of Tyne in February, 2021.

USS West Mead (ID-3548), also spelled Westmead, was a United States Navy cargo ship in commission from 1918 to 1919.

<i>John Bowes</i> (steamship)

John Bowes, built on the River Tyne in England in 1852, was one of the first steam colliers. She traded for over 81 years before sinking in a storm off Spain.

SS <i>Brulin</i> North American Great Lakes freighter

SS Brulin was a lake freighter that worked the North American Great Lakes routes from 1924 to 1960. She was renamed Outarde in 1939, and James J. Buckler in 1960, shortly before she ran aground and sank during salvage operations. Brulin was built by Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company, Hebburn-on-Tyne and launched on 31 July 1924, for the Montreal Forwarding Company. She was built to the maximum dimensions of the canal locks that preceded the St Lawrence Seaway.

SS Telefon was a Norwegian cargo steamship of about 1,400 GRT built by on the River Tyne in 1900. She was wrecked in South Shetland Islands in 1908, though later salved, repaired and returned to service. She was sunk in a collision off Denmark in 1913 as the British Kinneil.

SS <i>Corvus</i> (1919)

Corvus was a steam cargo ship built in 1919 by Columbia River Shipbuilding Company of Portland for the United States Shipping Board as part of the wartime shipbuilding program of the Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFC) to restore the nation's Merchant Marine. The freighter was operated on international and domestic routes through 1944. Early in 1945 she was transferred to Soviet Union as part of lend-lease program and renamed Uzbekistan. After several months of operation, the freighter was rammed by another vessel on 31 May 1945 and was beached to avoid sinking. She was subsequently raised and towed to Portland where she was scrapped in 1946.

SS Sagaing was a twin-hatched passenger and cargo steamship that regularly plied a route connecting Liverpool, Glasgow and Rangoon in the first half of the 20th century. It was attacked and partially destroyed at Trincomalee Harbour by aircraft of the Imperial Japanese Navy in 1942, as part of the Easter Sunday Raid on Ceylon. The hulk was sunk a year later to act as a pier but was raised in 2018 after a 5-month operation by the Sri Lanka Navy, moved out of the harbour area, and resunk.

Wacousta was a steam cargo ship built in 1908 by the Archibald McMillan & Son of Dumbarton for the Wacousta Dampskibskompani, originally managed by Peter Anton Grøn of Sandefjord, and subsequently transferred to Christensen & Stenseth in March 1915. She was named after a fictional character from a novel Wacousta by John Richardson, published in 1832. The ship was primarily employed as a collier during her career.

SS <i>Rosario di Giorgio</i>

Rosario di Giorgio was a steam cargo ship built in 1907 by the Nylands Verksted of Kristiania for Bernhard Hanssen of Flekkefjord. The ship was primarily employed as a fruit carrier during her career. She was named after Rosario di Giorgio, manager of Baltimore branch of Atlantic Fruit Company, and brother of Joseph di Giorgio, founder of the company.

SS <i>Monterey</i> (1897)

Monterey was a cargo schooner-rigged steamer built in 1897 by the Palmer's Ship Building & Iron Co of Jarrow for Elder, Dempster & Co. of Liverpool to serve on their cross-Atlantic routes.

William O'Brien was a steam cargo ship built in 1914–1915 by New York Shipbuilding Company of Camden for the Carpenter–O'Brien Lumber Company of Delaware. The vessel was extensively employed on East Coast to Europe routes during her career and foundered on one of her regular trips in April 1920.

Lake Frampton was a steam cargo ship built in 1918 by American Shipbuilding Company of Lorain for the United States Shipping Board (USSB) as part of the wartime shipbuilding program of the Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFC) to restore the nation's Merchant Marine. The vessel was employed in coastal trade during her career and collided with another steamer, SS Comus, and sank in July 1920 on one of her regular trips with a loss of two men.

SS <i>Samoa</i>

The SS Samoa was a 1,997-ton cargo ship that was able to escape an attack off the coast of California in the early days of World War II. The Samoa was built under a United States Shipping Board (USSB) contract in 1918 as the SS Muerthe, but was launched as the USS Lake Pepin, named after Lake Pepin, by the McDougall Duluth Shipbuilding Company of Duluth, Minnesota measured at 3,600 tons deadweight. She had a triple expansion engine steam engine with 1,250 horsepower (930 kW), a 251-foot (77 m) length, 43.5-foot (13.3 m) beam, a draft of 17 feet 8+12 inches (5.398 m), a top speed of 9.25 knots. The vessel had a crew of 52, with the hull # 9 and O.N.ID # 21699. The USS Lake Pepin was owned and operated by the United States Navy, commissioned at Montreal, Quebec, Canada on 4 September 1918. For World War I she was fitted with one 3"/50 caliber gun. The Navy put her in Naval Overseas Transportation Service as a coal carrier traveling between the United Kingdom and France as a United States Navy Temporary auxiliary ship. Her coal service ended in May 1919. In June 1919 she returned to the US with a cargo of World War I vehicles and weapons and unused ammunition. The US Navy decommissioned the Lake Pepin on 18 June 1919. In 1923 she was, renamed Samoa purchased and operated by the Hammond Lumber Company. In 1936 she was sold to the Wheeler Logging Company of Portland, Oregon. In February of 1941 she was sold to W. A. Schaefer Company.

Kenwood Bridge was a steam cargo ship built in 1919 by Submarine Boat Company of Newark for the United States Shipping Board (USSB) as part of the wartime shipbuilding program of the Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFC) to restore the nation's Merchant Marine. In early 1920 the vessel was sold to Spanish company and renamed Leonita. In March 1921 while on passage to Italy with a cargo of coal she developed a leak and foundered.

References

  1. 1 2 "War Toronto: Registry and Rig Information".
  2. a subsidiary of Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation
  3. "SS War Toronto (+1919)". wrecksite.eu. 2013-05-07. On September 19th, 1919, the wooden cargo ship WAR TORONTO, on voyage from Tyne to Sweden with a cargo of coal, was wrecked off Agger, west coast of Jutland. She was refloated, but then destroyed in a fire on November 19th, 1919.
  4. Douglas E. Delaney; Nikolas Gardner, eds. (2017). Turning Point 1917: The British Empire at War. UBC Press. p. 65. ISBN   9780774834025.
  5. "S.S. War Toronto arrived in Port: Last of 46 vessels constructed for the Imperial Munitions Board was inspected". Montreal Gazette . 1919-04-30. Retrieved 2015-12-15.