''Jamnagar'' was a

coaster Coaster (stylized as COASTER) is a commuter rail service in the central and northern coastal regions of San Diego County, California, United States operated by the North County Transit District (NCTD). The commuter rail line features eight s ...

which was built in 1924 for Maharaja Jam Sahib of Nawanagar. In 1941 she entered service with the

Royal Indian Navy The Royal Indian Navy (RIN) was the naval force of British India and the Dominion of India. Along with the Presidency armies, later the Indian Army, and from 1932 the Royal Indian Air Force, it was one of the Armed Forces of British India. F ...

. In 1944, she was sold into merchant service before being requisitioned by the

Ministry of War Transport The Ministry of War Transport (MoWT) was a department of the British Government formed early in the Second World War to control transportation policy and resources. It was formed by merging the Ministry of Shipping and the Ministry of Transpor ...

(MoWT) and renamed ''Empire Bulbul''. In 1947, she was sold into merchant service and renamed ''Hellenic Bulbul''. The name ''Hellenic Bee'' had been allocated but she ran aground and sank before the proposed name change could be implemented.

Description

''Jamnagar'' was built by J I Thornycroft & Co Ltd, Woolston. She was yard number 1030. ''Jamnagar'' was launched on 2 September 1924 and completed in October 1924. The ship was long, with a beam of and a depth of . She was propelled by a

triple expansion steam engine A compound steam engine unit is a type of steam engine where steam is expanded in two or more stages. A typical arrangement for a compound engine is that the steam is first expanded in a high-pressure ''(HP)'' cylinder, then having given up he ...

which had cylinders of 13½ inches (62 cm), and bore by stroke. The engine was built by Thornycroft. She had a GRT of 567 and a NRT of 279.

Career

''Jamnagar'' was operated by the Mercantile Marine Department of the State of Nawanagar. In 1940, she was sold to Hashim Mohomed Ganchi,

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

. Her port of registry was Karachi. In 1940, ''Jamnagar'' was requisitioned by the Royal Indian Navy for use as an auxiliary patrol vessel. She was returned to Ganchi in 1944 and then requisitioned by the MoWT and renamed ''Empire Bulbul''. In 1947, she was sold to Yannoulatos (Far East) Ltd,

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

and renamed ''Hellenic Bulbul''. She was operated under the management of the British Indian Steam Navigation Co Ltd. The name ''Hellenic Bee'' had been allocated, but on 29 August 1948 she ran aground on Domanik Island,

Bay of Bengal The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean, bounded on the west and northwest by India, on the north by Bangladesh, and on the east by Myanmar and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India. Its southern limit is a line bet ...

(), and then sank.

Official Numbers and Code Letters

Official Numbers were a forerunner to

IMO Numbers IMO or Imo may refer to: Biology and medicine * Irish Medical Organisation, the main organization for doctors in the Republic of Ireland * Intelligent Medical Objects, a privately held company specializing in medical vocabularies * Isomaltoolig ...

. ''Empire Bulbul'' had the United Kingdom

Official Number Official numbers are ship identifier numbers assigned to merchant ships by their 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 have sometimes ...

147002. ''Jamnagar'' used 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 and today also. Later, with the i ...

MNLX. ''Empire Bulbul'' used the Code Letters MNLS.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jamnagar 1924 ships Ships built in Southampton Steamships of India Merchant ships of India World War II merchant ships of India Auxiliary ships of the Royal Indian Navy Empire ships Ministry of War Transport ships Steamships of the United Kingdom Steamships of Hong Kong Merchant ships of Hong Kong Shipwrecks in the Indian Ocean Maritime incidents in 1948