SS Glentworth

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History
Civil Ensign of the United Kingdom.svgUnited Kingdom
NameSS Glentworth [1]
Owner
Port of registry Civil Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg Newcastle-upon-Tyne [2]
Builder Hawthorn Leslie & Co, Newcastle-upon-Tyne [2]
Yard number490 [1]
Launched15 July 1920
CompletedNovember 1920 [2]
Out of service1934 [1]
Identification
FateSold [1]
NameSS Box Hill [1]
Namesake Box Hill, Surrey
OwnerSurrey Hill Steamship Co. Ltd. [3]
Operator Counties Ship Management Co Ltd, London [1]
Port of registry Civil Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg London [3]
Acquired1934 [1]
Out of service31 December 1939 [1]
Identification
FateSunk by mine
General characteristics
Class and type Cargo ship [1]
Tonnage
  • 5,677  GRT
  • tonnage under deck 5,310
  • 3,510  NRT [2]
Length450.0 ft (137.2 m) [2] p/p
Beam55.0 ft (16.8 m) [2]
Draught25 feet 6+1⁄4 inches (7.78 m) [2]
Depth26.4 ft (8.0 m) [2]
Installed power
  • 620 NHP (as built); [2]
  • 586 NHP (after 1934) [3]
PropulsionHawthorn Leslie reduction-geared turbine (as built); [2] Hawthorn Leslie 3-cylinder triple expansion steam engine (after 1934) [3]
Speed11 knots (20 km/h) [1]
Crew20 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]

Contents

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 lbf/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]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Lettens, Jan; Racey, Carl (30 December 2010). "SS Box Hill [+1939]". The Wreck Site. Retrieved 25 May 2011.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Lloyd's Register of Shipping (PDF). London: Lloyd's Register. 1933. Retrieved 30 March 2013.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 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. Retrieved 26 July 2010.

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