SS Stockport (1911)
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2017}}
{{Use British English|date=December 2017}}
| {{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image | Ship image = | Ship caption = }} {{Infobox ship career | Hide header = | Ship name = SS Stockport | Ship operator =
| Ship registry = {{flagicon|UK|civil}} Grimsby | Ship route = | Ship ordered = | Ship builder = Earle's Shipbuilding, Hull | Ship original cost = | Ship yard number = | Ship way number = | Ship laid down = | Ship launched = 15 May 1911 | Ship completed = | Ship christened = | Ship acquired = | Ship maiden voyage = | Ship in service = | Ship out of service = | Ship identification = | Ship fate = Sunk 23 February 1943 | Ship notes = }} {{Infobox ship characteristics | Hide header = | Header caption = | Ship type = | Ship tonnage = {{GRT|1631|disp=long}} | Ship displacement = | Ship length = {{convert|265|ft|m}} | Ship beam = {{convert|36|ft|m}} | Ship draught = | Ship depth = {{convert|17.4|ft|m}} | Ship decks = | Ship deck clearance = | Ship ramps = | Ship ice class = | Ship power = | Ship propulsion = | Ship speed = | Ship capacity = | Ship crew = | Ship notes = }} |
SS Stockport was a passenger and cargo vessel built for the Great Central Railway in 1912.{{cite book |last1=Duckworth |first1=Christian Leslie Dyce |last2=Langmuir |first2=Graham Easton |date=1968 |title=Railway and other Steamers |language=English |location=Prescot, Lancashire |publisher= T. Stephenson and Sons }} During the Second World War she served as a convoy rescue ship until a U-boat sank her in February 1943.
History
The ship was built by Earle's Shipbuilding of Hull and launched in 1912. In 1923 she passed into the ownership of the London and North Eastern Railway, and in 1935 to the Associated Humber Lines.
On 11 August 1937 she was in collision with the Hull steam trawler Lady Beryl in the Humber off Immingham in thick fog. Both vessels were damaged but not below the water line.{{cite news |author= |title=Humber Collision in Fog |url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000324/19370812/042/0005 |newspaper=Hull Daily Mail |location=England |date=12 August 1937 |access-date=10 November 2015|via = British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription}}
Her convoy rescue service began on 22 October 1941. She rescued 413 survivors from sunken ships while sailing with sixteen convoys, including convoy SC 107.{{cite book| title=The Allied Convoy System 1939–1945 |author=Hague, Arnold |publisher=Naval Institute Press |year=2000 |isbn=1-55750-019-3 |page=91}}
On 21 February 1943 she was part of convoy ON 166 and went to the assistance of {{SS|Empire Trader||2}} which had straggled behind the convoy in the Atlantic Ocean north of the Azores, Portugal. After {{GS|U-92|1942|2}} torpedoed and damaged Empire Trader, Stockport rescued all 106 crew men before {{HMCS|Dauphin|K157|6}} scuttled Empire Trader following orders received from the Admiralty.{{cite web
|url=http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/2665.html
|title=Empire Trader
|last=Helgason
|first=Guðmundur
|website=German U-boats of WWII - uboat.net
|accessdate=20 February 2012
}} However, Stockport had itself now fallen. She was attempting to regain the convoy when on 23 February {{GS|U-604||2}} torpedoed and sank her at ({{coord|47|22|N|34|10|W}}) with the loss of all her crew and the survivors that she had rescued from other vessels.{{cite web
|url=http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/2676.html
|title=Stockport
|last=Helgason
|first=Guðmundur
|website=German U-boats of WWII - uboat.net
|accessdate=12 April 2012
}}
She is commemorated every February in a parade and commemoration service organised by Hazel Grove Royal Naval Association.
References
{{reflist}}
{{February 1943 shipwrecks}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stockport}}
Category:Steamships of the United Kingdom
Category:Ships built on the Humber
Category:Ships of the London and North Eastern Railway
Category:Ships of the Great Central Railway
Category:Ships of Associated Humber Lines