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Note

Date 1 March 2004

Event ID 621720

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Note

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/621720

Length: 413 ft (125.9m)

Beam: 53.4 ft (16.2m)

Draught: 31.1 ft (9.5m)

5995 grt; 3618 nrt; 8266 dwt

Constructed of steel decks, web frames and longitudinal framing, she was originally intended to carry petroleum, but was immediately converted for the carriage of (heavy) oil fuel.

She was built by the Standard Ship Building Corporation at Shooter's Island, New York, being launched on 29 January 1921 and delivered to the Eagle Oil and Shipping Co. The single triple-expansion engine (of 180 psi pressure and 544 nhp) was built by the Sun Shipbuilding Co., Chester, Pennsylvania. The 'saint' name of this vessel reflects the place of her owner's company in trade from the Mexican oilfields. Following the collapse in the Mexican oil trade during the 1920's, the vessel traded more widely around South America.

At the outset of war, the ship was chartered by the Ministry of War Transport and used for the transport of fuel to Scapa Flow. She was bound from Scapa Flow to Invergordon with a cargo of fuel oil and aircraft floats when mined (4 May 1940) by a contact mine laid some three months earlier from the German submarine U9. The ship broke in two on being mined, the two portions remaining on the surface for long enough to avoid loss of life.

The statement that this vessel was sunk was sunk by a contact mine may be doubted. The pattern of damage illustrated by Macdonald is entirely consistent with the detonation of a magnetic (influence) mine beneath the keel amidships, breaking the ship's back. Contact mines, in contrast, typically detonate against the sides forward, causing the plates to start but not causing immediate catastrophic damage.

Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 1 March 2004.

L Zanelli 1970; G Ridley 1992; R Macdonald 1993.

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