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HARESFIELD (1919)
Service dates: 1919-1942
Official number: 141909
Shipping lines: BRITISH INDIA STEAM NAVIGATION COMPANY LTD.
Ship type:
General Cargo Liner.
Career
- 30.04.1919
- Launched as War Aster for Shipping Controller.
- n.d.
- Purchased by the British India Steam Navigation Company for £150,000 and renamed Haresfield
- 18.07.1919
- Delivered as Haresfield.
- 03.1940
- Taken up under the Liner Division.
- 03.1942
- Assisted in the tow of the bomb damaged Cunard-White Star Georgic from the Red Sea to Karachi after the original tug had difficulties in heavy weather. Arrived in Karachi after a 23 day tow, then the longest tow on record for a ship of that size.
- 09.09.1942
- Torpedoed by the Japanese I29 in the Arabian Sea en route from Aden to Calcutta. The blow was a mortal one but a second torpedo completed the work of destruction. All the crew got away in the boats and all eventually reached Karachi, Aden or Muscat safely but in some cases after over fourteen days in an open boat.