City of Venice

CITY OF VENICE

A steam passenger ship built for Ellerman Lines Ltd., London in 1924 by Workman, Clark & Co. Ltd., Belfast. She was built to service Ellerman’s Britain to India route and was later transferred to the Britain to South Africa service.
In 1939 she was requisitioned by the Government for use as a troopship.
On 4th July 1943 she was part of Convoy KMS-18B sailing from the Clyde to Algiers acting as a troop transport and military stores carrier. She was under the command of Master James Wyper and she had on board 292 troops, with the crew members and gunners her total complement was 482 persons. The 292 troops were from the 1st Canadian Division heading for the invasion of Sicily under Operation Husky.
At 21.40 hours the German submarine U-375 fired a spread of four torpedoes at the convoy, which at that time was 10 miles north of Cape Tenez, Algeria. Two ships were hit and sunk; one of them was City of Venice. The master, 10 crew members and 10 troops were lost. The survivors were picked up by various British war-ships and landed at Algiers.
U-375 was herself sunk on 30th July 1943 north-west of Malta by depth charges from the US submarine chaser USS PC-624. All 46 crew members were lost.

Photograph belongs to Stuart Smith
Photographer unknown.