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Builder: Barclay Curle and Co, Whiteinch, Glasgow Yard No: 420
Launched: 21st November 1899
Tonnage: 7,550 grt
Length: 446 feet
Beam: 52 feet
Machinery: Triple expansion engines, 2 shafts
Speed: 13 knots
Launched in 1900 for the British and African Steam Navigation Company (Elder Dempster), Liverpool, as the SS ‘Lake Erie’. Her maiden voyage on the 30th January 1900 was as a Boer War transport. She was sold to Canadian Pacific when that company acquired Elder Dempster’s Canadian interests and chartered to the Allan Line in 1906, her name was changed to ‘Tyrolia’ in 1913 and the following year the ship was acquired by the Admiralty for conversion to the Dummy Battleship, ‘HMS Centurion’.
She then served as a Troop and Stores ship until 1916, when she was again converted to a Tanker with the name ‘RFA Saxol’ , this was changed to ‘RFA Aspenleaf’ on completion, when she came under the management of Lane and MacAndrews
On 30 December, 1916 RFA Aspenleaf was mined and damaged in the English Channel off the Owers Light Vessel. The mine had been laid by the German submarine UC16. There were no fatalities.
In 1921 the ship was sold to Anglo Saxon Petroleum Co (Shell Tankers) and re-named ‘Prygona’.
The ship was sold to Petersen and Albeck, Copenhagen for breaking up in 1925. |
