SS ''Michael E'' 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. She was the first British catapult aircraft merchant ship (CAM ship): a merchant ship fitted with a rocket catapult to launch a single

Hawker Hurricane The Hawker Hurricane is a British single-seat fighter aircraft of the 1930s–40s which was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd. for service with the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was overshadowed in the public consciousness by ...

fighter aircraft to defend a

convoy A convoy is a group of vehicles, typically motor vehicles or ships, traveling together for mutual support and protection. Often, a convoy is organized with armed defensive support and can help maintain cohesion within a unit. It may also be used ...

against long-range German

bomber A bomber is a military combat aircraft that utilizes air-to-ground weaponry to drop bombs, launch aerial torpedo, torpedoes, or deploy air-launched cruise missiles. There are two major classifications of bomber: strategic and tactical. Strateg ...

s. She was sunk on her maiden voyage by a German submarine.

Description

''Michael E'' was built by William Hamilton & Co Ltd,

Port Glasgow Port Glasgow (, ) is the second-largest town in the Inverclyde council area of Scotland. The population according to the 1991 census for Port Glasgow was 19,426 persons and in the 2001 census was 16,617 persons. The most recent census in 2011 s ...

. Launched in 1941, she was completed in May of that year. She was the United Kingdom's first CAM ship, armed with an aircraft catapult on her bow to launch a Hawker Sea Hurricane. The ship was long between perpendiculars ( overall), with a beam of . She had a depth of and a draught of . She was measured at and . She had six corrugated furnaces feeding two single-ended boilers with a combined heating surface of . The boilers fed a 443 nominal horsepower

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 (engine), cylinder, then ha ...

that had cylinders of , and diameter by stroke. The engine was built by David Rowan & Co Ltd, Glasgow.

History

''Michael E'' was owned by the Bury Hill Shipping Co Ltd. a company owned by the Nicholas Eustathiou shipping concerns. She was placed under the management of Counties Ship Management Ltd of

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, an offshoot of the Rethymnis & Kulukundis shipbroking company. She was named after Michael Eustathiou, a member of the Nicholas Eustathiou family that had a major shareholding in her. Her Code Letters were BCKB, her UK

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 ...

was 163168 and she was registered in London. ''Michael E'' was a

sister ship A sister ship is a ship of the same Ship class, class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They o ...

of , , and , which also were managed by CSM and owned by companies associated with R&K.

Sinking

On 28 May 1941 ''Michael E'' sailed in ballast on her maiden voyage from

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

bound for

Halifax, Nova Scotia Halifax is the capital and most populous municipality of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the most populous municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of 2024, it is estimated that the population of the H ...

with convoy OB 327. The convoy was dispersed on 1 June and at 20:43 hours on 2 June ''Michael E'' was in the

North Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for ...

several hundred miles southwest of Cape Clear when fired two

torpedo A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, such ...

es at her. One missed but the other struck her in the

stern The stern is the back or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite the bow, the foremost part of a ship. O ...

killing a crew member and two DEMS gunners, and at 22:21 hours she sank by the stern. On 3 June the Dutch cargo ship rescued ''Michael E''s master, 44 crew, two gunners and 12

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

personnel.

Replacement ship

In September 1941 William Hamilton & Co completed a second CAM ship of the same class for CSM. She was launched as and effectively replaced ''Michael E''. ''Primrose Hill'' survived until October 1942 when a German-operated submarine sank her by torpedo and shellfire.

References

Sources & further reading

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Michael E 1941 ships CAM ships Ships built on the River Clyde Maritime incidents in June 1941 Ships of Counties Ship Management Ships sunk by German submarines in World War II Steamships of the United Kingdom World War II shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean World War II merchant ships of the United Kingdom