''Avondale Park'' was a cargo ship which was built by

Pictou Shipyard The Pictou Shipyard is a Canadian shipbuilding site located in Pictou County, Nova Scotia, and made famous by its use as an emergency shipbuilding facility in World War II, during which it constructed twenty-four 4,700-ton Scandinavian class freig ...

Pictou, Nova Scotia Pictou ( ; Canadian Gaelic: ''Baile Phiogto'') is a town in Pictou County, in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. Located on the north shore of Pictou Harbour, the town is approximately 10 km (6 miles) north of the larger town of New Gla ...

in 1944. She was the last merchant ship to be sunk by

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, on 7 May 1945, the day of German surrender. She was built as merchant steamship constructed for

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

’s Merchant Navy in 1944 as part of Canada's

Park ship Park ships were merchant steamships constructed for Canada’s Merchant Navy during the Second World War. Park ships and Fort ships (built in Canada for operation by the British) were the Canadian equivalent of the American Liberty ships. All ...

program.

Description

The ship was built by Foundation Maritime Limited's

. She was launched in February 1944, and completed in May 1944. The ship was long, with a beam of and a depth of . She had a GRT of 2,878 and a NRT of 1,653. 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 , and diameter by stroke. The engine was built by Canada Iron Foundries, Three Rivers,

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Government of Canada, Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is ...

History

''Avondale Park'' was built for the Canadian Government and operated by the Park Steamship Co Ltd. 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 ...

175378 and

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 ...

VDDN were allocated. Her port of registry was

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

, under the

British flag The national flag of the United Kingdom is the Union Jack, also known as the Union Flag. The design of the Union Jack dates back to the Act of Union 1801 which united the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland (previously in pe ...

. She was later chartered 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 ...

, who placed her under the management of Witherington & Etheridge,

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is a ...

. ''Avondale Park'' was a member of Convoy EN 491, which departed Hull on 6 May 1945 bound for

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingd ...

via

Methil Methil (Scottish Gaelic: Meadhchill) is an eastern coastal town in Scotland. It was first recorded as "Methkil" in 1207, and belonged to the Bishop of St Andrews. Two Bronze Age cemeteries have been discovered which date the settlement as ov ...

. On 7 May 1945, the convoy was attacked by and two ships were sunk, and ''Avondale Park'', which became the last British merchant ship to be sunk during the Second World War. The sinking, at just after 23:00 on 7 May 1945, was in the last hours of the Second World War in Europe, with the official surrender taking place at 23:01 on 8 May 1945. ''Avondale Park'' sank at . Two of the 38 crew were lost. A signal had been sent to the U-boats on 4 May 1945 ordering them to surrender but ''U-2336'' did not receive the signal.

Citations

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Avondale Park 1944 ships Ships built in Nova Scotia World War II merchant ships of Canada Steamships of Canada Ministry of War Transport ships World War II merchant ships of the United Kingdom Steamships of the United Kingdom Ships sunk by German submarines in World War II World War II shipwrecks in the North Sea Maritime incidents in May 1945 Fleet of the Canadian Merchant Navy

Description

History

See also

Citations

References