SS Empire Tower

SS Empire Tower was a British cargo ship built in 1935 and sunk by enemy action in 1943.

She was built by the Burntisland Shipbuilding Company Ltd. in Fife, Scotland. The North Eastern Marine Engineering Co. Ltd. of Sunderland built her 335 nominal horsepower three-cylinder triple expansion steam engine. She had six corrugated furnaces with a combined heating surface of 117 sqft heat to heat her three 180 psi single-ended boilers, which had a combined heating surface of 5445 sqft. She was fitted with direction finding equipment.[2]

She was launched as SS Roxburgh for B.J. Sutherland and Company of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. In 1937 the Tower Hill Steamship Company, an offshoot of Counties Ship Management, bought her and renamed her SS Tower Field.[1]

Damage and repair

On 10 May 1941 Tower Field was steaming in ballast from London to Newcastle when a German aircraft attacked and damaged her off the Outer Dowsing Buoy in the Thames Estuary. She was repaired and returned to service.[3]

On 19 October 1941 she was entering Workington Channel off Hull with a cargo of iron ore when she ran aground and fractured her hull. She broke in two but her cargo was discharged and she was refloated and repaired.[3]

The Ministry of War Transport took her over and renamed her SS Empire Tower but kept her under CSM management.[2] She returned to service in December 1942.[3]

Sinking

Early in 1943 Empire Tower, under Captain David John Williams OBE, joined Convoy XK-2 from Gibraltar to the UK. On 5 March the German Type IX submarine GS U-130 (1941) attacked the convoy and sank Empire Tower, SS Fidra, SS Ger-y-Bryn and SS Trefusis.[3][4][5] Empire Tower sank within a minute and Captain Williams, six gunners and 35 crew were lost. The Royal Navy armed trawler HMS Loch Oskaig (FY 175) rescued three survivors and landed them at Londonderry, Northern Ireland.[3]

One week later, on 12 March, a depth charge attack by US Navy destroyer USS Champlin (DD-601) west of the Azores sank U-130 with the loss of all 53 hands.[4]