RFA Elmleaf

Previous name:                   OLIVET
Subsequent name:             MELONA,   ATHELCREST,  VLISMAR II 

Official Number:                   140252                                                           

Class:                                    Emergency Wartime Construction LEAF Group Freighting Tanker

Pennant No:                         Y7.157

Laid down:
Builder:                                  Earle’s Shipbuilding Co Ltd, Hull
Launched:                             1916
Into Service:                          March 1917
Out of service:                      1920

Fate:                                       Broken Up

Items of historic interest involving this ship: - 

Background Data:   During WW1, 18 vessels of varying types were acquired second hand and converted or purchased and converted while on the stocks, or in a few cases building as tankers. Some were converted after serving with the Dummy Battleship Squadron by the insertion of cylindrical tanks in their holds. All were originally intended to operate as RFA’s however, owing to reasons of international law and the operation of the US Neutrality Act, these oilers became Mercantile Fleet Auxiliaries, being renamed with the LEAF nomenclature and placed under civilian management although operationally they remained under Admiralty control

1916 Launched by  Earle’s Shipbuilding Co Ltd, Hull as Yard Nr 614 named RFA OLIVET

March 1917 Completed and placed under management of Lane & MacAndrew Ltd, London as an oiler transport and renamed  ELMLEAF. Base port Devonport

24 December 1917 Whilst on passage from Port Arthur, Texas to the U.K. she was torpedoed and damaged by a German submarine U91  with a cargo of oil and in a position 27  miles WSW of Cape Wrath. No fatalities. Towed to port. Her lost cargo was valued at £24,549

15 May 1919 berthed at Devonport from Galveston, Texas

1919 Sold to Anglo-Saxon Petroleum Co., London

8 February 1920 sailed Avonmouth for Key West

3 October 1920 Captain H E Hill was Master

2 November 1920 while at Good Hope 15 miles up river from New Orleans twenty four members of the Chinese crew rioted when told that the US authorities had stopped shore leave. The crew members armed themselves with knives, pieces of wood and iron and rushed US guards. The guards opened fire with pistols and eleven of the crew were wounded. Two of the injured were not expected to live. Some reached shore and hid. Others surrendered.

11 January 1921 reported as off Dover - later the same day berthed at Rotterdam

14 April 1921 Captain J Hill was Master

7 May 1921 berthed at Houston 

11 May 1921 sailed Houston

30 May 1921 arrived Colon 

24 June 1921 at Panama City

14 August 1921 reported at Tampa

7 September 1921 Captain G H C White was Master

10 September 1921 reported off the Isle of Wight

11 September 1921 berthed in the Port of London

23 September 1921 renamed Melona.

1 October 1921 berthed at Tampa 

2 October 1921 sailed Tampa

22 October 1921 arrived Liverpool from Tampico

November 1924 sold to British Molasses Co., London and renamed Athelcrest. In 1926 Company became United Molasses Company

4 November 1929 involved in a collision with ss John Cadwalader in the River Delaware off Deepwater Point, USA - reported in the New York Times

1930's laid up in Lamlash Bay during the Shipping Depression

1935 sold to N. V. Vlissingsche Mineraalolie en Asphalt Raffinaderij, Vlissingen, Holland and renamed Vlismar II. Converted to a storage hulk.

Vlismar II as a hulk at Flushing

7 February 1983 towed from Flushing to Burcht, Belgium for breaking up.