M.V. Lochee

Category

Library Item

Item no

36375

Title

M.V. Lochee

Artist / maker

Unknown

Date

1943

Size

11.5 x 17.6 cm

Type

Reproduction

Copyright

The copyright status of this item is unknown. If you have information related to the copyright holder please contact us.

The MV Lochee was an SS motor ship built at Henry Robb, shipbuilders, Leith, for Dundee Perth & London Shipping Company. She was launched by Lady Nairn on the 8th of July 1937 and sailed on the 25th of August 1937.

Tonnage: 964 gross, 535 nett.
Machinery: single screw 8 cylinder 'Polar' Diesel engine
Speed: 12 knots on loaded trials

Lochee was requisitioned for Government service, her special hold construction for both bulk and general cargo making her a valuable carrier for cased petrol. During the winter of 1939-40 she travelled between this country and Bordeaux, and was then assigned to take part in the evacuation of our troops from Norway. She then travelled between Northern Ireland and North-Western ports, and then, inward bound to Liverpool at the end of December 1940 she exploded an acoustic mine.

The explosion on the port quarter unseated all the auxiliary engines, smashed the steering gear and windlass, and blew the winches and cables overboard. The whole stern was forced badly out of line - but only three men were injured. Repairs took many weeks but Lochee resumed petrol-carrying between Britain and Gibraltar. She was one of the great convoy which took part in the North African landing.

Lochee was the first merchant ship into Algiers, and survived many attacks by bomb and torpedo. Driven ashore in February 1944 by a fierce gale in the Bay of Naples she was pounded heavily for two months by big seas before being repaired in time for the Normandy invasion on D-Day 1944.

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Landscape > Water > Seas

Places > Edinburgh areas > Leith

Places > Scotland > Edinburgh

Transport > Water > Ships