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ETTRICK (1938)
Service dates: 1938-1942
Official number: 166625
Shipping lines: P&O STEAM NAVIGATION COMPANY
Ship type:
Troopship.
Career
- 25.08.1938
- Launched.
- 15.12.1938
- Ran trials.
- 16.12.1938
- Delivered as Ettrick for The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. She was the only P&O vessel designed from the outset as a troopship for permanent Government charter; as such she had special clauses inserted in her marine insurance policy to cover the particular hazards of her trade. Named after Ettrick Water, Selkirkshire.
- 13.01.1939
- Maiden sailing Southampton/West Indies.
- 27.05.1940
- Sent empty from Gibraltar to evacuate Bordeaux. 250 refugees were taken to the Clyde, where she received repairs and alterations.
- 14.06.1940
- Sent to Brest. The town was bombed and Ettrick was sent to St Nazaire but learned en route that the town had fallen. She was diverted to Bayonne.
- 22.06.1940
- Arrived at Bayonne and evacuated 2,000 people from St Jean de Luz including French, Poles, the Hadfield-Spears Ambulance Brigade and King Zog of Albania, his Queen, sisters and Crown Jewels. They disembarked at Plymouth on 26th June.
- 08.11.1942
- Part of the first troop convoy for the North African landing with Mooltan and took part in the landings at Arzeu.
- 15.11.1942
- Torpedoed by the German submarine U155 at 0315hrs, 240km (150 miles) west of Gibraltar (36°13’N-07°54’W). She sank at 0836hrs. She was on a voyage from Gibraltar to the Clyde in ballast, with a crew of 209, including naval ratings, plus 41 gunners. 18 naval ratings and 5 Asian crew were lost, and another Asian seaman died of his injuries. The survivors were taken to Gibraltar by the Norwegian destroyer Glaisdale, and returned to the UK in Mooltan the following day.