Bristol City (1920)

Bristol City was the third of three British cargo steamers of that name built for the Bristol City Line that plied the route between Bristol and North America between 1920 and 1943.

Bristol City in the 1920s
History
United Kingdom
Name: Bristol City
Operator: Bristol City Line
Port of registry: Bristol, UK
Builder: Charles Hill & Sons Ltd.
Launched: 1920
Completed: March 1920
Fate: Sunk by a torpedo fired by German submarine U-358, 5 May 1943
General characteristics
Type: Passenger-cargo ship
Displacement: 2,864 t (2,819 long tons; 3,157 short tons)
Propulsion: 3-cylinder triple expansion engine; single screw
Speed: 10 kn (19 km/h; 12 mph)

Construction

Bristol City was built by Charles Hill & Sons Ltd. of Bristol in 1920. The ship was of 2,864 gross register tons (GRT), made of steel, and had one 3-cylinder triple expansion engine with a single shaft and one screw. She made 10 knots.[1]

Career
Bristol City at Canons Marsh Wharf, Bristol, 1938.

The ship would have plied the service between Bristol and North America which the Bristol City Line started in 1879 and continued until the 1970s.[2] During the Second World War she was damaged by a bomb in December 1940 while in the Albion Dockyard. After repairs, the ship sailed under Captain Webb OBE and she was part of convoys of merchant ships across the Atlantic.

Sinking

In April 1943, Bristol City joined Convoy ONS 5 (outward, northbound, slow) from Britain to North America. The convoy was made up of 42 ships, of which 12 or 13 were sunk after the convoy came under sustained attack from German U-boats hunting in packs.[3] On 5 May at 02:25, Bristol City was south of Greenland and east of Newfoundland when she was sunk by a torpedo fired by German submarine U-358, under the command of Rolf Manke. Fifteen of the 44 people on board died.[4] Manke fatally damaged Wentworth not long after. HMS Loosestrife picked up the survivors from both ships who were landed at St Johns in Newfoundland.[5]

References
  1. SS Bristol City (+1943). Wrecksite. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
  2. Pride of Bristol - the Bristol City Line. Bristol Post, 17 November 2008. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
  3. Helgason, Guðmundur. "Convoy battles ONS-5". German U-boats of WWII - uboat.net. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
  4. Helgason, Guðmundur. "Bristol City". German U-boats of WWII - uboat.net. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
  5. Malcolm, Ian M. (2013). Shipping Company Losses of the Second World War. Stroud: History Press. p. 53. ISBN 978-0-7509-5371-9.

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