SS English Trader
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| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom
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| Name: | SS Arches |
| Owner: | Arctees Shipping Company Ltd. |
| Ordered: | 1933 |
| Builder: | Furness Ship Building Company Ltd |
| Launched: | 1934 |
| Maiden voyage: | 1934 |
 United Kingdom
|
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| Name: | SS English Trader |
| Owner: | Trader Navigation Company Ltd |
| Acquired: | 1936 |
| Out of service: | 24 October 1941 |
| Homeport: | London |
| Identification: |
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| Fate: | Ran aground on Hammond Knoll on the North Norfolk Coast |
| General characteristics | |
| Tonnage: | 3,953 GRT |
| Length: | 362 ft 5 in (110.46 m) |
| Beam: | 57 ft 5 in (17.50 m) |
| Depth: | 23 ft 6 in (7.16 m) |
| Installed power: | 357 hp (266 kW) nominal |
| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: | 8-10 knots |
| Crew: | 38 |
The SS English Trader was a merchant ship which was wrecked in 1941 off the coast of Norfolk, England, on the Hammond's Knoll sandbank. Several epic rescue attempts by lifeboats failed, but a further attempt the following day by the Cromer lifeboat rescued the surviving 44 men on board.
The ship was built in 1934 at the shipyards of the Furness Ship Building Company Ltd at Haverton-Hill-on-Tees for the Arctees Shipping Company Ltd where she was then called Arctees. She was designed by Sir Joseph Isherwood and had his revolutionary "Arcform" hull design to improve fuel consumption. Fifty ships were built to that design between 1933 and 1954. In 1936, she was sold to the Trader Navigation Company Ltd as its first tramp vessel and renamed English Trader. All of the company's later vessels had the same Trader suffix.
The first three years of the vessel's life were uneventful. On 23 January 1937, the English Trader was in the waters of the Devon coast. While entering Dartmouth Harbour she was run aground close to Dartmouth Castle at the entrance to the haven.
Attempts were made to re-float her by four tugs and a Royal Navy destroyer without any success. She was badly holed and some of the holds were filling with debris and so, after ten days of being stuck fast, drastic measures were taken to save the ship. This course of action involved cutting the ship in two at her bow section which was eventually scrapped. The process took nineteen days after which the undamaged after part was pulled stern-first into Dartmouth Harbour. Later she was moved to Southampton. A contract was given to The Middle Docks & Engineering Company of South Shields to repair her. She was rebuilt from the boiler room forward in only 100 days.
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Wikipedia