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Previous name: to be named Knight Batchelor HMS Cape Sable
Subsequent name: Eastern Venture Gema
Official Number: 167641
Class: Special Service Freighter - Q ship
Pennant No: X44 F112
Laid down: 1929
Builder: Lithgows
Launched: 12 February 1936
Into Service: 19 September 1939
Out of service: May 1942
Fate: Broken up 1968
Items of historic interest involving this ship: -
Background Data: In 1939 Winston Churchill gave authority for a number of merchantmen to be requisitioned for service as Q-ships, although for security purposes they were referred to as Special service Freighters. A fleet of 9 small mainly coal-burning vessels were acquired , 6 for deep-sea work and 3 for coastal work. All were commissioned as HM ships under their original names but were given RFA cover names and on entering harbour and while in harbour they wore the Blue Ensign, behaved as RFA’s and adopted the RFA commercial practices. None of them was really suitable for their intended roles and met with a complete lack of success. Their Q-ship service officially ended on 2 March 1941
1929 ordered by Newport Line (Pardoe-Thomas & Co Ltd, Managers) Newport as KNIGHT BACHELOR but construction was halted on the stocks as the owners found themselves to be over-committed due to the onset of the Depression
12 February 1936 launched by Lithgows Ltd, Port Glasgow as Yard Nr 831 named CAPE SABLE for Lyle Shipping Co Ltd, Glasgow
25 March 1936 completed at a cost of £63,040
September 1939 taken over by the Admiralty as a Q ship for conversion into a Special Service Freighter at Portsmouth Dockyard
19 September 1939 commissioned as HMS Cape Sable
3 December 1939 conversion completed. Cover name RFA CYPRUS. Complement 90 under command of Cdr. R.S. Barry R.N. Armed with 7 x single 4-inch guns, 4 x Lewis machine guns, 4 x single 21-inch torpedo tubes, 100 x depth charges and was fitted with Asdic.
14 March 1940 sailed for Gibraltar after work-up in the Solent area
29 March 1940 arrived Gibraltar then ranged around as far as Bermuda, Sierra Leone, Simonstown, Durban and finally Colombo
5 March 1941 commissioned as an Armed Merchant Cruiser at Colombo
16 March 1941 First Radio Officer James Badcock , Naval Auxiliary discharged dead. He is remembered with pride on the Liverpool Naval Memorial
9 March 1942 arrived Tyne to be reconditioned for return to commercial service
11 March 1942 transferred to MoWT control
29 April 1946 handed back to the original owners - Lyle Shipping Co
1950 converted from coal to oil fired
1958 sold to Pan Norse SS Co, Panama for £56,500 and renamed Eastern Venture
1966 managers became Wah Kwong & Co (Hong Kong) Ltd, Hong Kong
1967 purchased by P.T. Gesuri Lloyd, Djakarta and renamed GEMA
16 March 1968 arrived Hirao for demolition
Notes:
- This ship was a Q ship - a commissioned Naval vessel which would assume its RFA name on entering harbour to hide its genuine identity. She never served as an RFA.
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