SS Duchess of York (1928) - War Service and Loss

War Service and Loss

In 1940, SS Duchess of York left Greenock on 27 July 1940, bound for Halifax taking evacuated children under the Children's Overseas Reception Board. She returned to England and made a second trip taking another batch of children from Liverpool on 10 August 1940, bound for Canada.

She was recommissioned by the British Admiralty as a troopship and used early in the war to transport Canadian soldiers to Britain, returning to Canada carrying RAF aircrew and German prisoners of war (among them legendary escapee Franz von Werra in early January 1941). On 9 July 1943, she sailed Greenock as part of the small, fast Convoy Faith, for Freetown, Sierra Leone, in company with the SS California and the merchant ship Port Fairy.

Two days later, the convoy was about 300 miles west of Vigo when it was attacked by three Focke-Wulf Fw 200 aircraft of Kampfgeschwader 40 based at Merignac near Bordeaux. The accurate high-altitude bombing left both Duchess of York and California blazing. Her escorts HMCS Iroquois, HMS Douglas and HMS Moyola, together with Port Fairy, rescued all but twenty seven from the ship. Fearing the flames from the ships would attract U boats, the Duchess of York and California were sunk by Royal Navy torpedoes in position 41°15′N 15°24′W / 41.250°N 15.400°W / 41.250; -15.400 in the early hours of 12 July.