SS Maid of Kent

SS Maid of Kent was a British passenger ferry and later converted to a hospital ship. She was named after Elizabeth Barton.[1]

HMHS Maid of Kent as a hospital ship between 1939 to 1940.
History
United Kingdom
Name: SS Maid of Kent
Namesake: Maid of Kent
Owner:
Ordered: 1924
Builder: William Denny and Brothers, Dumbarton
Yard number: 1174
Laid down: 1925
Launched: 5 August 1925
Commissioned: 26 October 1925
Reclassified: HMHS Maid of Kent (No.21)
Identification: Callsign: GBR, GLNS
Fate: Sunk by Luftwaffe in 1940.
General characteristics
Type:
Displacement:
  • 2657 tons (minimum)
  • 2693 tons (maximum)
Length: 104.24 m (342 ft 0 in)
Beam: 45.1 m (148 ft 0 in)
Draft: 12' 10
Depth: 17.1 m (56 ft 1 in)
Installed power:
  • 4x Parsons turbines 800 kW each
  • 2x shafts
Speed: 22 knots (41 km/h)
Boats & landing
craft carried:		 8 x Lifeboats
Capacity: 1400

Construction and career

She was laid down, launched and commissioned in 1925. She was owned by Southern Railway Company, London. 26 October, she was delivered to Southampton. SS Maid of Kent replaced her sister ship Isle of Thanet which was transferred to Folkestone on 6 November.

On 9 March 1926, she accidentally rammed the Southern Breakwater at Dover which cause damage to her bow.

SS Maid of Kent made her way to Folkestone as soon the United Kingdom declared war on Germany. She was taken over by the Royal Navy and designated as a hospital ship and made her way from Newhaven to Dieppe.

Throughout the May of 1940, she made several trips to and back carrying hundreds of wounded. 18 May, a bomb dropped nearby of HMHS Maid of Kent but she was unable to relocate, three days later on 21 May, a bomb from the Luftwaffe air raid hit her engine room which cause a fire aboard the ship. She sank that day but was later raised by the Germans and moved into deeper water.[2][3]

  • SS Maid of Kent after colliding with the breakwater in 1926.
  • HMHS Maid of Kent between 1939 to 1940.

References
  1. "Steam Turbine MAID OF KENT built by William Denny & Bros in 1925 for Southern Railway Company, London, Passenger". www.clydeships.co.uk. Retrieved 22 October 2020.
  2. Andrew Plested says (16 July 2012). "TS Maid of Kent (II) – Past and Present". Dover Ferry Photos. Retrieved 22 October 2020.
  3. http://www.doverwarmemorialproject.org.uk/Casualties/WWII/Maid%20of%20Kent.pdf
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