SS Gracechurch

SS Gracechurch was a United Kingdom 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 sqft feeding three 180 psi single-ended boilers with a combined heating surface of 6105 sqft.[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,[3] 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

On 16 August 1940 Mill Hill left Halifax, Nova Scotia as a member of convoy HX 66A laden with pig iron and scrap steel for Middlesbrough, England.[4] Between 0220 and 0248 hrs on 30 August 58 miles off Cape Wrath in the north of Scotland GS U-32 (1937) torpedoed the convoy, sinking three ships.[4] One was Mill Hill, which sank within a few minutes with the loss of all hands.[4]

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.[6] 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.[7]

Sources & further reading