RFA Bacchus (A103)

For other ships of the same name, see RFA Bacchus.
Career
Name: RFA Bacchus
Namesake: Bacchus
Ordered: 17 December 1935
Builder: Caledon Shipbuilding & Engineering Company, Dundee
Laid down: 14 February 1936
Launched: 15 June 1936
Commissioned: 20 September 1936
Decommissioned: 13 April 1962
Fate: Scrapped, 1964
General characteristics
Displacement:6,325 long tons (6,426 t) full load
Length:338 ft (103 m)
Beam:49 ft 4 in (15.04 m)
Draught:18 ft (5.5 m)
Propulsion:1 × 3-cylinder triple expansion steam engine, 2,000 ihp (1,491 kW)
Speed:12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement:49

RFA Bacchus (A103) was a stores freighter and fresh water distilling ship of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary. She was the second ship to bear this name, replace the one before her. In her time she would carry the pennants X03, B556, A103.[1]

Service history

Built by the Caledon Shipbuilding & Engineering Company, Dundee. She was converted to stores issuing ship in 1942, and reconverted to freighter in 1946.

She was used first on the Chatham - Gibraltar - Malta run taking naval supplies and a small number of passengers. With WWII breaking out she was given the distillation unit from HMS Resolution[2] and after then a stores ship. Attached to the British Pacific Fleet Train in 1945 she spent time at HMS Tamar in Hong Kong.

Post WWII

From 1946 RFA Bacchus started on the overseas sea freight service she would make the run through U.K, Mediterranean and Far East Run through the Suez Canal and Aden. In 1956 she took part in Operation Musketeer on the (Suez).[1]

Laid up at Singapore, she was sold on 14 August 1962 and renamed Pulau Bali. Beached at Singapore on 12 August 1964 prior to scrapping.

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 "Ships starting with B RFA Ships starting with B". www.historicalrfa.org. Retrieved 20 November 2012.
  2. "RFA Bacchus". www.royalnavyresearcharchive.org.uk. Retrieved 20 November 2012.