SS Shuntien (1934)

SS Shuntien in civilian service, 1934–41 The icebreaker shape of her bow is clearly visible Photograph reproduced courtesy of
History
Name:	Shuntien
Namesake:	Shuntian, a Ming Dynasty name for Beijing
Owner:	China Navigation Co, Ltd
Operator:	John Swire & Sons, Ltd
Port of registry:	London
Route:	Shanghai – Tianjin coastal service
Builder:	Taikoo Dockyard & Engineering Co
Yard number:	264
Completed:	1934
In service:	1934
Out of service:	23 December 1941
Identification:	UK official number 154092 call sign GWSC
Fate:	Sunk by torpedo
General characteristics
Type:	Passenger and cargo liner
Tonnage:	3,059 GRT 2,194 tonnage under deck 1,570 NRT
Length:	303.7 ft (92.6 m)
Beam:	46.1 ft (14.1 m)
Depth:	23.1 ft (7.0 m)
Installed power:	3,400 shp
Propulsion:	Twin steam turbines; single reduction geared to drive a single screw
Speed:	12 knots (22 km/h) or 16 knots (30 km/h)
Capacity:	(in civilian service): 39 saloon 20 cabin 52 2nd class 60 3rd class
Crew:	70 crew, plus (in WW2) 18 DEMS gunners
Sensors and processing systems:	direction finding
Armament:	(as DEMS) 1 × QF 12 pounder gun 4 × Oerlikon 20 mm cannon 4 × Marlin M1895/14 machine guns 2 × Lewis guns
Notes:	sister ship: Shengking

The icebreaker shape of her bow is clearly visible

SS Shuntien was a 3,059 GRT coastal passenger and cargo liner of the British-owned The China Navigation Company Ltd (CNC). She was built in Hong Kong in 1934 and sunk by enemy action in the Mediterranean Sea with great loss of life in 1941. A Royal Navy corvette rescued most of Shuntien's survivors, but a few hours later the corvette too was sunk and no-one survived.

Taikoo Dockyard and Engineering Company in Hong Kong built Shuntien for CNC in 1934. She replaced an earlier and smaller SS Shuntien that Scotts at Greenock on the Firth of Clyde had built in 1904 and that was scrapped in 1935. The new Shuntien was a sister ship of SS Shengking, which Scotts had built in 1931. Both Taikoo Dockyard and CNC were owned by John Swire and Sons Ltd, which is British-owned but based in Hong Kong.

The new Shuntien's engines were steam turbines built by Taikoo Dockyard. She was built to trade along the coast of China, where her relatively shallow draught enabled her to turn in the Hai River at Tianjin and her icebreaker bow equipped her against sea ice in northern waters.

In 1937 Shuntien returned to Taikoo Dockyard for maintenance, and while she was there the Great Hong Kong Typhoon of 1937 blew her ashore. She survived, was refloated and returned to service.

In the Second World War the British government requisitioned Shuntien and converted her into a Defensively-Equipped Merchant Ship (DEMS). Photographs of Shuntien taken about that time by a US photographer, Harrison Forman, show Shuntien in the Port of Shanghai apparently being converted into a prison ship. Shuntien moved to the Mediterranean, where her British officers supplemented her Chinese crew with Arab and Maltese recruits.