SS Gracechurch

History
United Kingdom
Name	Gracechurch[1]
Owner	Gracechurch Shipping Co.[1]
Operator	James, Muers & Co.[1]
Port of registry	London[2]
Builder	William Doxford & Sons, Sunderland[2][3]
Launched	25 February 1930[3]
Completed	April 1930[2][3]
Out of service	1933[1]
Identification	Code Letters LFSR [2] UK official number 161390[2]
Fate	Sold[1]
Name	Peebles[4]
Owner	B.J. Sutherland & Co[1]
Operator	B.J. Sutherland & Co
Port of registry	Newcastle-upon-Tyne[1]
Acquired	1933[1]
Out of service	1936[1]
Fate	Sold
Name	Mill Hill[4]
Namesake	Mill Hill, north London
Owner	Mill Hill Steam Ship Co, Ltd.[4]
Operator	Counties Ship Management Co Ltd, London[1][3]
Port of registry	Newcastle-upon-Tyne[4]
Acquired	1936[1]
Identification	Call sign GTJL [4] UK official number 161390[4]
Fate	Sunk by torpedo 30 August 1940[1][3]
General characteristics
Type	Cargo ship
Tonnage	4,318 GRT;[2] tonnage under deck 4,025;[2] 2,600 NRT[2]
Length	320.4 ft (97.7 m)[2]
Beam	52.9 ft (16.1 m)[2]
Height	24.9 ft (7.6 m)[2]
Installed power	368 NHP[2]
Propulsion	3-cylinder triple expansion steam engine;[2] single screw
Crew	34[3]

SS Gracechurch was a UK 4,318 GRT cargo ship built by William Doxford & Sons at Pallion on Wearside in 1930.[2] She twice changed owners and names, becoming SS Peebles in 1933 and SS Mill Hill in 1936. She was sunk by a German submarine in August 1940.

Engines

The ship had nine corrugated furnaces with a combined grate area of 187 square feet (17 m^2) feeding three 180 lb_f/in^2 single-ended boilers with a combined heating surface of 6,105 square feet (567 m^2).[2]

Names and owners

Gracechurch was first owned by Gracechurch Shipping Co of Newcastle and managed by James, Muers & Co of Cardiff.[1] In 1933 she was sold to B.J. Sutherland & Co who renamed her Peebles.

In 1936 she was sold to the Mill Hill Steam Ship Co Ltd,[4] which was controlled by Counties Ship Management (an offshoot of the Rethymnis & Kulukundis shipbroking company of London[5]) who renamed her Mill Hill.[1]

Loss

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Approximate position of Gracechurch's wreck

On 16 August 1940 Mill Hill left Halifax, Nova Scotia as a member of convoy HX 66A laden with pig iron and scrap steel[6] for Middlesbrough, England.[3] Between 0220 and 0248 hrs on 30 August 58 miles off Cape Wrath in the north of Scotland U-32 torpedoed the convoy, sinking three ships.[3] One was Mill Hill, which sank within a few minutes with the loss of all hands.[3]

Replacement ships

Gracechurch was the third of four ships that B.J. Sutherland & Co named Peebles.[1] When Sutherland sold her in 1936, William Doxford & Sons completed a new 4,982-ton cargo ship MV Peebles for Sutherland.[1] She survived the Second World War and in 1951 Sutherland sold her to Westralian Farmers Transport who renamed her Swanstream.[1] In 1957 Westralian sold to J. Manners & Co. of Hong Kong who renamed her San Fernando.[1] In 1965 Manners sold to her to Yong & Lee Timber who renamed her Phoenician Star.[1] She was scrapped at Hong Kong in 1967.[1]

Gracechurch was the first of two ships that Counties Ship Management named Mill Hill. In 1947 CSM bought the 7,219-ton Liberty ship SS Samdon and renamed her SS Mill Hill. Samdon had been built by New England Shipbuilding Corporation of Portland, Maine in 1943.[7] In 1949 she was transferred from CSM to a new Rethymnis and Kulukundis company, London and Overseas Freighters, retaining the name Mill Hill. In 1951 LOF sold her to new owners who renamed her Educator.[5] She was scrapped in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1961.[8]

References

1. Swiggum, S (1997–2010). "B.J. Sutherland & Co., Ltd. Newcastle upon Tyne 1892-1954". The Ships List. S Swiggum, M Kohli. Archived from the original on 10 June 2010. Retrieved 26 July 2010.
2. Lloyd's Register of Shipping (PDF). London: Lloyd's Register. 1932. Retrieved 23 March 2013.
3. Helgason, Guðmundur (1995–2010). "Mill Hill". uboat.net. Guðmundur Helgason. Retrieved 26 July 2010.
4. Lloyd's Register of Shipping (PDF). London: Lloyd's Register. 1935. Retrieved 23 March 2013.
5. Fenton, Roy (2006). "Counties Ship Management 1934-2007". LOF-News. p. 1. Retrieved 26 July 2010.
6. Slader 1988, p. 63.
7. "Lloyd's Register of Shipping". London: Lloyd's Register. 1943. Archived from the original on 18 May 2012. Retrieved 26 July 2010.
8. "Liberty Ships - S". Mariners. 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.
• Slader, John (1988). The Red Duster at War. London: William Kimber & Co Ltd. p. 63. ISBN 0-7183-0679-1.

58.48°N 06.49°W / 58.48; -06.49