Rossington Court

From SN Guides

Introduction

Court Line used the name Rossington Court for just one ship.

She was launched in 1928 and continued in operation until she was sank as a result of a collision with another British ship in 1940 whilst sailing in a convoy from Canada to England. Her service life was just 12 years.

Basic Data

• Type: Cargo ship
• Registered owners,managers and operators: The United British Steam Ship Co. Ltd. - managers Haldin and Phillipps Ltd.
• Builders: Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. Ltd.
• Yard: Glasgow
• Country: UK
• Yard number: 631
• Registry: N/K
• Official number: 160585
• Signal letters: N/K
• Call sign: N/K
• Classification society: N/K
• Gross tonnage: 6,922
• Net tonnage: 4,334
• Deadweight: N/K
• Length: 420 ft
• Breadth: 56.5 ft
• Depth: 32.8 Ft
• Draught: N/K
• Engines: Triple expansion steam engine
• Engine builders: J.G.Kincaid & Co. Ltd.
• Works: Greenock
• Country: UK
• Power: N/k
• Propulsion: Single screw
• Speed: 10
• Boilers: N/K
• Cargo capacity:N/K
• Crew: N/K

• Employment: General purpose cargo vessel

Career Highlights

• 1928: Launched
• Oct 1928: Completed
• 1936: Owners restyled Court Line Ltd. - same managers
• 13 Mar 1940: Sunk after collision

Pre-War History

No detailed information currently is currently available apart from the fact that Rossington Court was one of the few Court Line ships NOT to have been laid up in the depression of the 1930s.

Participation in WW2 Convoys

The data in the following table has been extracted from External Resource #4 which indicates that Sinnington Court participated in 4 convoys.

A key to the routes for these convoys can be found on this page: World War 2 Convoy Names

Sinking

External resource #2 states that Rossington Court sank following a collision 400 miles east of Halifax Nova Scotia en route from New Westminster to the Tyne carrying lumber and metal. External resource #4 states that the colision was on convoy HX26 and the other ship was Athelviking.

External resource #5 provides some information about the sinking that was recorded by Pamela Jacqueline Saville regarding her father James Saville:

My father was a Merchant Navy captain, in command of Rossington Court. His ship was sunk when the convoy he was in left Newfoundland.

Just before the convoy left, all the captains had a briefing meeting. My father’s was the largest ship, with medical supplies and food. The convoy had a non-Merchant Navy vessel — a full navy ship — as escort as it ploughed across the Atlantic.

Another ship’s steering got jammed and it cut into my father’s ship. The Chief Engineer saw the bows cut into the engine room.

At the briefing, another captain had said that he’d come back if my father’s ship were in trouble. When dawn broke, he realised that my father’s ship was missing. He broke away from the convoy. The Atlantic was very rough — this was wintertime — but by a miracle he found the lifeboat. One lifeboat had been crushed, but all the crew and officers had managed to squeeze into the other boat, so everyone was saved. They had very little food, but managed to get back — I think to Falmouth.

My mother had been told that the ship had been sunk, but no other news. My father telephoned from Falmouth when he got back. In those days everything was so secret.

My father continued in the RNR. The war changed. He went over with the bridgeheads in France and supervised things there for the Normandy landings. Eventually he was posted to Sri Lanka.

External resources

1. Information extracted from Lloyds Registers by John Powell
2. Norman Middlemiss: Travel of the Tramps - Twenty Tramp Fleets ISBN: 1871128021
3. Miramar Ships Index: http://www.miramarshipindex.org.nz
4. Arnold Hague Convoy Database: http://www.convoyweb.org.uk/
5. People's war website: Pamela Jacqueline Saville People's war

Images

Awaiting an image of this vessel

Contributors

1. Basic research and construction of entry by Benjidog
2. History and basic details by John Powell and Clive Ketley