SS Clearton
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History | |
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Name: | SS Clearton |
Operator: | R. Chapman & Son, Newcastle-upon-Tyne |
Builder: | Richardson, Duck and Company, Stockton-on-Tees |
Completed: | September 1919 |
Fate: | sunk 1 July 1940 |
General characteristics | |
Tonnage: | 5,219 GRT |
Capacity: | 7,320 tons |
Crew: | 34 |
SS Clearton was a 5,219 gross register tons (GRT) British cargo steamship. She was built in 1919 by Richardson, Duck and Company, Stockton-on-Tees for the shipping firm of R. Chapman & Son, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Her homeport was Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
Career and loss
In the Second World War she sailed in convoys, carrying food supplies to the United Kingdom. Her last convoy, SL-36, took her from Rosario, Argentina to Manchester, via Freetown, Sierra Leone, where she arrived on 15 June 1940. She was carrying a cargo of 7,320 tons of cereals, commanded by her Master, John Edward Elsdon.
At 1155 hours on 1 July 1940 German submarine U-102 torpedoed and damaged Clearton about 180 miles west of Ushant. The ship fell behind the convoy and at 1325 hours U-102 torpedoed her again, sinking her 042° 240 miles from Smalls. Eight crew members were lost out of a total complement of 34. The Admiralty-modified W-class destroyer HMS Vansittart sank the submarine, rescued Clearton's Master, 24 crew members and one DEMS gunner, and brought the survivors to Plymouth.
References
Coordinates: 47°53′N 9°30′W / 47.883°N 9.500°W / 47.883; -9.500
Standard design ships of WWI ordered by the British Shipping Controller | |
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Ships built by American shipyards |
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Ships built by British shipyards |
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Unbuilt ships |
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1 = Cancelled. 2 = Probably completed under a different name. 3 = Not completed |
Shipwrecks |
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Other incidents |
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1939 ![]() ![]() June 1940 ![]() ![]() |