SS British Transport

History
United kingdom
Name:	British Transport (1910-1933)
Owner:	Empire Transport Co. Ltd. (Houlder Bros & Co. Ltd.), West Hartlepool
Builder:	Raylton Dixon, Middlesbrough
Yard number:	650
Launched:	25 April 1910
Completed:	June 1910
Fate:	Scrapped, Pola, Italy, July 1933.
General characteristics
Class and type:	Steam
Tonnage:	4143
Length:	365 feet
Beam:	51 feet
Propulsion:	2 x boilers, 1 shaft, reciprocating vertical triple expansion

SS British Transport was a steel-hulled steamship of 4143 grt built in 1910 by Raylton Dixon at Middlesbrough [1]. On 11 September 1917 under the command of Capt. Alfred Thompson Pope (Lieut., R.N.R), British Transport was in the Bay of Biscay en route from Brest to Archangel with a cargo of munitions and other explosives when she was attacked by the surfaced U-boat SM U-49. After a five-hour gun battle lasting into darkness, U-49 fired two torpedoes at her but both missed. Betrayed by the phosphorescence in her wake, British Transport pursued and rammed the submarine, and then fired her deck gun to complete U-boat's destruction. U-49 sank at 46.17N 14.42W with the loss of all 43 hands.[2]. This was the first action in which a merchant ship had sunk a U-boat, for which Pope was awarded the DSO.[3]

British Transport was scrapped at Pola, Italy, in 1933.

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