SS City of Bradford (1903)

History
Name:	1903-1914:SS City of Bradford 1914-1919:SS Donau 1919-1936:SS City of Bradford 1936-1953:SS Hanne
Operator:	1903-1923:Great Central Railway 1923-1935:London and North Eastern Railway 1935-1936:Associated Humber Lines 1936-1942:Near East Shipping Company
Port of registry:
Builder:	Earle's Shipbuilding, Hull
Launched:	1903
Out of service:	22 February 1942
Fate:	Sunk
General characteristics
Tonnage:	1,341 gross register tons (GRT)
Length:	256.5 feet (78.2 m)
Beam:	34.5 feet (10.5 m)
Depth:	15.7 feet (4.8 m)

SS City of Bradford was a passenger and cargo vessel built for the Great Central Railway in 1912.^[1]

History

The ship was built by Earle's Shipbuilding of Hull and launched on 23 July 1903^[2] by Mrs Robinson, the wife of the engineer of the Great Central Railway. She was one of an order for two ships, the other being City of Leeds.

In 1914, on passage to Hamburg and being unaware of the outbreak of war, she was intercepted off Heligoland and taken as a prize. Renamed Donau, she was recovered by British forces in January 1919 and returned to Grimsby.

In 1923, she passed into the ownership of the London and North Eastern Railway and, in 1935, to the Associated Humber Lines. She was surplus to requirements and sold in 1936 to the Near East Shipping Company and renamed Hanne.

She was bombed on 22 February 1942 by Luftwaffe aircraft and sunk in the Atlantic Ocean (31°57′N 25°26′E / 31.950°N 25.433°E / 31.950; 25.433), with the loss of four of her 25 crew.^[3]

References