| Career | |
|---|---|
| Name: | SS Roxburgh[1] |
| Namesake: | Roxburgh, Scotland |
| Owner: | B.J. Sutherland & Co.[1] |
| Port of registry: | Newcastle-upon-Tyne |
| Builder: | Burntisland Shipbuilding Company Ltd, Fife, Scotland[1] |
| Launched: | 1935[1] |
| Fate: | sold 1937[1] |
| Career | |
| Name: | SS Tower Field[1] |
| Owner: | Tower Steamship Co. |
| Operator: | Counties Ship Management, London[1] |
| Port of registry: | London |
| Out of service: | 19 October 1941[1] |
| Fate: | ran aground & broke in two[2] |
| Career | |
| Name: | SS Empire Tower[1] |
| Owner: | Ministry of War Transport[1] |
| Operator: | Counties Ship Management, London[1] |
| Port of registry: | London |
| In service: | December 1942[1] |
| Out of service: | 5 March 1943[1] |
| Fate: | sunk by torpedo 5 March 1943[1] |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | cargo ship[1] |
| Tonnage: | 4,378 GRT[1] |
| Length: | 372 ft (113 m)[1] |
| Beam: | 52 ft (16 m)[1] |
| Draught: | 25 ft (7.6 m) laden[1] |
| Installed power: | 335 NHP triple expansion steam engine[1] |
| Propulsion: | screw |
| Crew: | 39 plus 6 Royal Navy gunners[1] |
SS Empire Tower was a British cargo ship built in 1935 and sunk by enemy action in 1943.
The Burntisland Shipbuilding Company Ltd. in Fife, Scotland built her as SS Roxburgh for B.J. Sutherland and Company of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.[1] In 1937 the Tower Hill Steamship Company, an off-shoot of Counties Ship Management, bought her and renamed her SS Tower Field.[1]
On 10 May 1941 Tower Field was steaming in ballast from London to Newcastle when a German aircraft attacked and damaged her off the Outer Dowsing Buoy in the Thames Estuary.[2] She was repaired and returned to service.[2]
On 19 October 1941 she was entering Workington Channel off Hull with a cargo of iron ore when she ran aground and fractured her hull.[2] She broke in two but her cargo was discharged and she was refloated and repaired.[2]
The Ministry of War Transport took her over and renamed her SS Empire Tower but kept her under CSM management.[2] She returned to service in December 1942.[2]
Early in 1943 Empire Tower, under Captain David John Williams OBE, joined convoy XK-2 from Gibraltar to the UK.[2] On 5 March the Type IX U-boat[3] U-130 attacked the convoy and sank Empire Tower, SS Fidra, SS Ger-y-Bryn and SS Trefusis.[2][4] Empire Tower sank within a minute and Captain Williams, six gunners and 35 crew were lost.[2] The Royal Navy armed trawler HMS Loch Oskaig (FY 175) rescued three survivors and landed them at Derry[2] in Northern Ireland.
One week later, on 12 March, a depth charge attack by US Navy destroyer USS Champlin (DD-601) west of the Azores sank U-130 with the loss of all 53 hands.[3]