SS Minnedosa

SS Minnedosa was a 15,000 ton steam ocean liner the hull of which was built in Glasgow on the River Clyde for the Canadian Pacific Shipping Line by Barclay Curle, under sub-contract to Harland and Wolff, in Belfast. The ship had been ordered by the Hamburg America Line but when World War I broke out, the ship was purchased by Canadian Pacific. [1] It was launched in Glasgow on 17 October 1917 and towed to Belfast for completion, being handed over to Canadian Pacific on 21 November 1918.[2]

SS Minnedosa
History
Owner: Canadian Pacific Shipping Line
Builder: Barclay Curle for Harland and Wolff
Yard number: 464
Laid down: 1913
Launched: 17 October 1917
Completed: 21 November 1918
Fate: Sold for scrap 1935
Kingdom of Italy
Name: Piemonte
Acquired: 1935
Fate:
  • Scuttled August 1943
  • Raised and scrapped 1949
General characteristics
Type:
Tonnage:
  • 13,972 GRT (1918–1925)
  • 15,186 GRT (1925–)
Length: 520 ft (160 m)
Beam: 67.2 ft (20.5 m)

After initial voyages as a troop ship bringing home Canadian soldiers, she was used on the Liverpool to Saint John, New Brunswick run and called at all the major transatlantic ports. She carried numerous immigrants to Canada and the United States and for a period in the late 1920s was commanded by Captain Ronald Niel Stuart, VC and was entitled to fly the Blue Ensign as a result. The ship was refitted in 1925, which increased her overall tonnage.[2]

In 1935 she was sold for scrap, but was purchased by Mussolini's Italian government and refitted as a troopship named Piemonte. During World War II, she was torpedoed and damaged in the Mediterranean Sea north of Sicily by the Royal Navy submarine HMS Umbra on 17 November 1942. She put into Messina, Sicily, where she was withdrawn from service. She was scuttled when Axis forces evacuated Messina in August 1943. Her wreck was raised in 1949 and towed to La Spezia, Italy, for scrapping.[2][3]

Minnedosa had a nearly identical sister ship SS Melita, also sold to the Italian government in 1935, which became the troop ship Liguria, scuttled at Tobruk in 1941. [4]

See also

References
  1. http://www.greatships.net/minnedosa.html Minnedosa, retrieved August 10, 2017
  2. Dunn, Laurence (1964). Famous Liners of the Past Belfast Built. London: Adlard Coles. p. 58.
  3. Rohwer, Jürgen; Gerhard Hümmelchen. "Seekrieg 1942, November". Württembergische Landesbibliothek Stuttgart (in German). Retrieved 15 May 2015.
  4. http://www.greatships.net/melita.html Melita, retrieved August 10, 2017
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