Scoresby
History
United Kingdom
Name	Scoresby
Owner	Rowland & Marwood's SS Co, Ltd[1]
Operator	Headlam & Son[1]
Port of registry	Whitby[1]
Builder	Robert Thompson & Sons Ltd, Bridge Dockyard, Sunderland[1]
Yard number	316[4]
Launched	18 December 1922
Completed	January 1923[1]
Identification	UK official number: 137083[1] code letters KNMD (until 1933)[2] Call sign GFZN (1934–40)[3]
Fate	sunk by torpedo, 17 October 1940[5]
General characteristics
Class and type	cargo steamship
Tonnage	3,843 GRT[1] 2,310 NRT[1]
Length	360.1 ft (109.8 m)[1] registered length
Beam	50.0 feet (15.2 m)[1]
Draught	22 ft 6+3⁄4 in (6.88 m)[1]
Depth	22.9 feet (7.0 m)[1]
Installed power	340 NHP[1]
Propulsion	triple-expansion steam engine; single screw[1]
Speed	8.5 knots (15.7 km/h)[citation needed]
Crew	39[5]

SS Scoresby was a British cargo steamship that was built in 1923, sailed in a number of transatlantic convoys in 1940, and was sunk by a U-boat that October.

Robert Thompson & Sons Ltd of Bridge Dockyard, Sunderland built Scoresby.^[1] She was launched on 18 December 1922 and completed in January 1923.^[6]

Scoresby had eight corrugated furnaces with a combined grate area of 128 square feet (12 m²) that heated two 180 lb_f/in² single-ended boilers with a combined heating surface of 5,276 square feet (490 m²).^[1] The boilers fed a three-cylinder triple expansion steam engine that was rated at 436 NHP and drove a single screw.^[1] The engine was built by the North Eastern Marine Engineering Co, Ltd, also of Sunderland.^[1]

Scoresby owner was Rowland and Marwood's Steam Ship Co, Ltd, who registered her in Whitby.^[1] She was managed by another Rowland and Marwood's company, Headlam & Sons.^[1]

By January 1940 Beatus was sailing in convoys.^[7] That month she sailed from Liverpool with Convoy OB 77 as far as the coast of Canada, whence she continued to San Domingo.^[7] In March she returned to the UK with a convoy of sugar, sailing via Halifax, Nova Scotia where she joined Convoy HX 28 that reached Liverpool on 2 April.^[8]

In May 1940 Scoresby crossed the North Atlantic from Britain to Saint John, New Brunswick. She sailed with Convoy OA 150G from Southend,^[9] which merged with Convoy OA 150G off Land's End to form Convoy OG 30 to Gibraltar.^[10] In June she returned to the UK with a cargo of pit props, sailing via Halifax, Nova Scotia where she joined Convoy HX 53 that reached Liverpool on 10 July.^[11]

Scoresby spent the rest of July and August in home waters, sailing in short-haul convoys around Britain. Then on 31 August she sailed from Methil in Scotland with Convoy OA 207 to Canada.^[12]

Scoresby sailed from Corner Brook, Newfoundland with a cargo of 1,685 fathoms (3,082 m) of pit props bound for the Clyde in Scotland.^[5] She sailed via St. Francis Harbour, Nova Scotia and Sydney, Nova Scotia, where she joined Convoy SC 7.^[5] Her Master was Lawrence Zebedee Weatherill, and she carried the Convoy Vice-Commodore.^[5] SC 7 left Sydney on 5 October. At first the convoy had only one escort ship, the Hastings-class sloop HMS Scarborough. A wolf pack of U-boats found the convoy on 16 October and quickly overwhelmed it, sinking many ships over the next few days.

At 0553 hrs on 17 October SC 7 was about 160 nautical miles (300 km) northwest of Rockall when German submarine U-48, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Heinrich Bleichrodt, fired three torpedoes at the convoy.^[5] Two ships were hit and sunk: Scoresby and the French tanker Languedoc.^[5] Captain Weatherill and his entire crew successfully abandoned ship, were rescued by the Flower-class corvette HMS Bluebell, and on 20 October were landed at Gourock in Scotland.^[5]

59°14′N 17°51′W / 59.233°N 17.850°W / 59.233; -17.850