SS Bruges (1920)

History
Name:	TSS Bruges
Operator:	1920-1923:Great Eastern Railway 1923-1940:London and North Eastern Railway
Port of registry:
Route:	Harwich to Antwerp
Builder:	John Brown, Clydebank
Yard number:	494
Launched:	20 March 1920
Out of service:	11 June 1940
Fate:	Bombed and Sunk
General characteristics
Tonnage:	2,949 gross register tons (GRT)
Length:	321.6 feet (98.0 m)
Beam:	43.1 feet (13.1 m)

TSS Bruges was a passenger vessel built for the Great Eastern Railway in 1920.^[1]

History

The ship was built by John Brown of Clydebank for the Great Eastern Railway as one of a contract for two new steamers and launched on 20 March 1920.^[2] She was launched by Lady Thornton

She was placed on the Harwich to Antwerp route.^[3]

In 1923 she was acquired by the London and North Eastern Railway.

She was requisitioned during the World War II as a troop transport ship and bombed and damaged on 11 June 1940 at Le Havre by Luftwaffe aircraft. She was beached to prevent her from sinking.^[4]

References

1. Duckworth, Christian Leslie Dyce; Langmuir, Graham Easton (1968). Railway and other Steamers. Prescot, Lancashire: T. Stephenson and Sons,.
2. "New Railway Steamer". Cambridge Daily News. England. 22 March 1920. Retrieved 31 October 2015 – via British Newspaper Archive. (subscription required (help)).
3. Haws, Duncan (1993). Merchant Fleets – Britain's Railway Steamers – Eastern and North Western Companies + Zeeland and Stena. Hereford: TCL Publications. ISBN 0 946378 22 3.
4. "Bruges Ferry 1920-1940)". Wrecksite. Retrieved 11 June 2013.