''Empire Cowper'' was a

cargo ship A cargo ship or freighter is a merchant ship that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's List of seas, seas and Ocean, oceans each year, handling the bulk of international trade. ...

that was built in 1941 by William Doxford & Sons Ltd,

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a port at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea, approximately south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is the most p ...

, United Kingdom. She was built for the Ministry of War Transport. ''Empire Cowper'' was bombed and sunk on 11 April 1942 whilst a member of Convoy QP 10.

Description

''Empire Cowper'' was built in 1941 by William Doxford & Sons Ltd,

. Yard number 682, she was launched on 23 September and completed in December, The ship was long, with a beam of . She had a depth of and a draught of . She was assessed at , . Her DWT was 10,173. The ship was propelled by a 511 nhp triple expansion steam engine, which had cylinders of , and diameter by stroke. The engine was built by John Brown & Co Ltd,

Clydebank Clydebank () is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. Situated on the north bank of the River Clyde, it borders the village of Old Kilpatrick (with Bowling, West Dunbartonshire, Bowling and Milton, West Dunbartonshire, Milton beyond) to the w ...

History

''Empire Cowper'' was completed in December 1941, and placed under the management of R Chapman & Son. The

Official Number Official numbers are ship identifier numbers assigned to merchant ships by their flag state, country of registration. Each country developed its own official numbering system, some on a national and some on a port-by-port basis, and the formats hav ...

169003 was allocated, as were the

Code Letters Code letters or ship's call sign (or callsign) Mtide Taurus - IMO 7626853"> SHIPSPOTTING.COM >> Mtide Taurus - IMO 7626853/ref> were a method of identifying ships before the introduction of modern navigation aids. Later, with the introduction of ...

BCTF. ''Empire Cowper'' was a member of Convoy PQ 13, which departed Loch Ewe on 10 March 1942 and arrived at

Murmansk Murmansk () is a port city and the administrative center of Murmansk Oblast in the far Far North (Russia), northwest part of Russia. It is the world's largest city north of the Arctic Circle and sits on both slopes and banks of a modest fjord, Ko ...

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

on 31 March. She arrived at

Reykjavík Reykjavík is the Capital city, capital and largest city in Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland on the southern shore of Faxaflói, the Faxaflói Bay. With a latitude of 64°08′ N, the city is List of northernmost items, the worl ...

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

on 16 March and departed on 20 March to join the convoy. ''Empire Cowper'' was a member of Convoy QP 10, which departed the Kola Inlet on 10 April and arrived at Reykjavík on 21 April. On 11 April, she was bombed by

Junkers Ju 88 The Junkers Ju 88 is a twin-engined multirole combat aircraft designed and produced by the German aircraft manufacturer Junkers Aircraft and Motor Works. It was used extensively during the Second World War by the ''Luftwaffe'' and became one o ...

aircraft and sunk in the

Barents Sea The Barents Sea ( , also ; , ; ) is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located off the northern coasts of Norway and Russia and divided between Norwegian and Russian territorial waters.World Wildlife Fund, 2008. It was known earlier among Russi ...

at , with the loss of nine of her crew. Those lost on ''Empire Cowper'' are commemorated at the Tower Hill Memorial, London.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Empire Cowper 1941 ships Ships built on the River Wear Ministry of War Transport ships Empire ships Merchant ships of the United Kingdom Maritime incidents in April 1942 Shipwrecks in the Barents Sea Ships sunk by German aircraft World War II shipwrecks in the Arctic Ocean