LST 3041
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LST 3041 entering harbour in Malta | |
Displacement: | 4,291 tonnes (4,223 long tons) |
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Length: | 330 feet (101 m) |
Beam: | 54 feet (16.5 m) |
LST 3041 The hull of LST3401 was built by Harland and Wolff in Belfastand was launched on October 31, 1944.
The crew joined her in Scotland and took part in shakedown trials in which they would run the ship ashore and use the stern anchor to pull themselves off. In the summer of 1945, loaded with tanks and toops and a troop landing craft, she sailed to the Suez Canal. After unloading there she sailed through the Canal to the take part in the invasion of Japan. She was also used to transport rice from Thailand to Singapore. It was during this period that she visited Bombay, where instead of having a tug pull her into the channel she won the tug-of-war and managed to capsize the tug.
After returning through the Suez she was refitted, and the rivets in the bottom of the hull that had been worn by repeated landings were replaced in drydock. She finally returned to England in 1947 via Malta and Gibraltar.
In 1948 she was renamed the Empire Doric and was chartered to F. Bustard & Sons, the Atlantic Steam Navigation Company, where the LSTs became the forerunners of the modern roll on-roll off (RO-RO) car ferries.
During the Suez crisis she was requisitioned back by the Royal Navy and sailed to Port Said where she offloaded Centurion tanks, and where she struck a sunken vessel. As a result of this collision, she had to call in at Naples on the way home for repairs and was in drydock until early January 1957. She remained in use until 1960 when she was scrapped in Glasgow.