RFA Fort Rosalie (1)
Previous name:
Subsequent name:
Official Number: 180636
Class: CANADIAN FORT CLASS Stores Ship
Pennant No: X142 / A186
Laid down: 29 August 1944
Builder: United Shipyards Limited, Montreal, Canada
Launched: 18 November 1944
Into Service: 20 November 1947
Out of service: 1 May 1972
Fate: Broken up
Items of historic interest involving this ship: -
Background Data: After the outbreak of WW2, the first cargo vessels built in Canada for the War Effort were the “North Sands” type, the hulls of which conformed to original British working drawings supplied by the North Sands Shipyard of J.L. Thompson & Sons at Sunderland. Following experience gained from these ships, improved versions with a more economic operation were introduced. These were the ”Victory” and “Canadian” types. The “Victory” type was an oil burner and two water tube boilers were substituted for the original 3 Scotch boilers. Because of the then concerns about oil fuel supplies, the “Canadian” type had coal bunkers and alternate oil fuel capacity installed, but with a reversion to the original 3 Scotch boilers of the “North Sands” type. In 1943, when the shipping situation in the Pacific was becoming acute, the British Government ordered that a number of the ships of the Canadian building programme be completed as Stores Issuing Ships whose intended task would be to follow and victual naval units as part of the British Pacific Fleet Train. In all, 16 ships were completed as Stores Issuing Ships as follows: 3 as Ammunition Carriers, 2 as Air Stores Issuing Ships, 2 as Naval Stores Issuing Ships and 9 as refrigerated Victualling Stores Issuing Ships. All were managed by commercial companies with vast experience of Far Eastern Waters as Mercantile Fleet Auxiliaries with Merchant Navy Crews and a detachment of Stores Staff from the Victualling Division of the Admiralty under a Commander. On the refrigerated ships, the refrigerated space was in the tween decks and amounted to 111,480 cubic feet in 25 chambers. The lower holds were used for non-perishable items of stores, clothing, etc. After WW2, 8 of these ships became RFA’s. They were only armed during WW2.
18 November 1944 Launched as a “Canadian” type by United Shipyards Ltd, Montreal as Yard Nr 43 named FORT ROSALIE (1) for the MoWT
7 April 1945 Completed as an Ammunition Carrier and placed under initial management of Ellerman and Bucknall Steamship Co Ltd, London and served with the British Pacific Fleet Train.
May 1946 Naval Rating were used to load Naval Stores for Hong Kong during a dockers strike in Sydney, Australia
20 July 1946 arrived at Yokohama
18 November 1946 sailed Hong Kong for Colombo
7 December 1946 sailed Colombo to Sydney, NSW, Australia
25 December 1946 while on passage from Fremantle to Sydney called at Albany, Australia to land a sick member of the crew. Sailed the same day for Sydney, NSW
30 January 1947 sailed Sydney, NSW for Portsmouth, England
22 March 1947 passed Gibraltar enroute to the UK
17 November 1947 Captain Thomas Elder DSC RFA appointed as Master
20 November 1947 transferred to the Admiralty, under RFA management and was converted into an ASIS at Portsmouth Dockyard
1 December 1947 Mr G C Dunning RFA appointed as Chief Engineer Officer
Chief Engineer Officer G C Dunning RFA
10 August 1949 Mr I Cameron RFA appointed as Chief Engineer Officer
13 December 1949 berthed at No 8 North Wharf, Fremantle, Australia to load 1,400 tons of ammunition for Sydney, NSW
9 January 1950 arrived at and anchored off Melbourne
7 March 1950 berthed at No 3 Naval Buoy, Sydney, NSW, Australia
13 March 1950 sailed Sydney, NSW, Australia for Singapore
20 March 1950 berthed at Townsville, Queensland with engine defects - the local fire service maintained a 24 hour guard on her due to her explosives cargo. She sailed the next day for Singapore
21 June 1950 Captain Stanley C Kernick RFA appointed as Master
25 June 1950 to 27 July 1953 saw service during the Korean War for more than 18 months, along with 18 other RFA’s
21 July 1950 sailed Portsmouth for Devonport to load following an explosion at the Naval Armanents Depot, Bedenham, Fare Creek
5 September 1950 berthed at Singapore
June 1952 returned to the UK after Korean Operations
1 September 1952 Captain A R Wheeler RD RFA (Lieutenant Commander RNR) appointed as Master
3 October 1952 In support of Operation Hurricane 1 - the first British test atomic bomb explosion at Monte Bello Islands off NW Australia - along with RFA’s FORT BEAUHARNOIS, FORT CONSTANTINE, GOLD RANGER, WAVE PRINCE, WAVE RULER (1) and WAVE SOVEREIGN
12 December 1952 Mr Wilfred C Shortland RFA appointed as Chief Engineer Officer
2 September 1953 a crew member appeared before Singapore Fifth Police Court for smoking onboard while the ship was discharging ammunition at Singapore Naval Base - he was fined $1
11 May 1954 while on passage from Singapore to Penang used by RNA Service to dump old depth charges. She was escorted by HMS Whitesands Bay.
16 November 1954 Captain Emil E Sigwart RFA appointed as Master
2 September 1955 Mr J McI Lumsden RFA appointed as Chief Engineer Officer
December 1956 Sailed UK with AWRE stores for Christmas Island
1 October 1956 Captain J Dines RD RFA (Commander RNR) appointed as Master
8 October 1956 Mr H G May RFA appointed as Chief Engineer Officer
27 December 1956 sailed the UK with Naval Stores for Christmas Island
1957 - 1960 involved in Operation Grapple at Christmas Island in the Pacific Ocean - the British H-bomb - along with 16 other RFA’s
11 August 1957 General Servant Perdo Diaz discharged dead - natural causes
17 April 1958 Mr J W Ritchie RFA appointed as Chief Engineer Officer
13 August 1958 Commodore Thomas Elder CBE DSC RFA appointed as Master
1 April 1959 Captain Leslie J Mack DSO RFA appointed as Master
7 July 1960 sailed Malta for Rhodes
14 November 1960 Mr G Thompson RFA appointed as Chief Engineer Officer
15 December 1960 Captain Howard D Gausden DSO OBE RFA appointed as Master
24 November 1961 Mr A Morton RFA appointed as Chief Engineer Officer
14 September 1962 Captain George Robson RFA appointed as Master
October 1962 Restored and sea trials in the Plymouth area
November 1962 Further storing at RNAD Milford Haven. Sailed Milford Haven to Middle East and Far East stations via the South Atlantic
December 1962 At Freetown (for bunkers), Ascension Island, Cape Town (bunkers)
23 December 1962 arrived at RNAD Mombassa - cross stored with RFA Fort Langley who she relieved on station.
January 1963 sailed Monbassa
27 January 1963 arrived Singapore.
February 1963 sailed Singapore for the Andaman Sea
27 February 1963 took part in Exercise JET63 with RN and RAN units
17 March 1963 Exercise JET63 completed and sailed to Hong Kong
17 April 1963 sailed from Singapore to USN Philippine exercise area
24 April 1963 Took part in SEATO Exercise 'Sea Serpent' with units of the RN, RAN, RNZN, USN and Phillippine Navy
8 May 1963 Exercise 'Sea Serpent' completed. Ships anchored in Manila Bay.
11 May 1963 returned to Singapore
June to July 1963 involved in exercises off Singapore supporting Far East Fleet ships visiting Hong Kong and Manila
August 1963 Storing at Singapore - both armaments and victualling stores for RN units in the Persian Gulf. Sailed for the Middle East calling at Karachi for bunkers
September 1963 in the Persian Gulf and at Bahrain
October 1963 Two day RAS with RFA Fort Langley off Socotra Islands . Stand off Aden for two weeks then deployed to Mombassa
November 1963 Sailed Mombassa to support ships exercising. To Karachi and then return to Mombassa
December 1963 at Mombassa cross stored with RFA Fort Langley who was relieving her on station. Sailed to Gan to RAS with RFA Wave Sovereign.
19 December 1963 Mr D Meikle RFA appointed as Chief Engineer Officer
25 December 1963 anchored Malacca Strait
26 December 1963 anchored off Singapore
27 December 1963 alongside RNAD Singapore to destore
January 1964 to April 1964 refit in H.M. Dockyard, Singapore
April 1964 restore and trials
6 May 1964 Captain Sydney S F Dalgleish OBE RFA appointed as Master
8 May 1964 RAS with Fort Sandusky cancelled due to the deployment of the Fort Sandusky to the Seychelles
18 May 1964 sailed Singapore for SEATO Exercise 'Ligtas' off the island of Mindoro, Philippines
4 June 1964 arrived Hong Kong with the Far East Fleet
30 June 1964 berthed at Singapore
24 July to 7 August 1964 Exercise 'FORTEX' 1964
August to October 1964 Singapore station ammunition ship
October/November 1964 deployed in support of Indonesian confrontation visited Kutching, Labaun and Hong Kong
13 October 1964 Mr A Morton RFA appointed as Chief Engineer Officer
December 1964 berthed at Singapore
15 January 1965 while en-route to the UK and off Muka Head, Malaya a crew member suffered a perforated stomach ulcer. He was medevaced off the ship by a RAAF helicopter operating from RAF Butterworth.
27 January 1965 Her Ship’s Badge was officially presented to her
February 1965 visit to Hong Kong cancelled - visited Australia instead (at Darwin for 8 days) - returned to Singapore
21 April 1965 Mr S P Awati RFA appointed as Chief Engineer Officer
30 March 1966 Mr J Ross RFA appointed as Chief Engineer Officer - sailed Singapore
5 April 1965 berthed at Hong Kong
20 April 1965 sailed Hong Kong
26 April 1965 berthed at Singapore
May 1965 deployed to Manilla
7 May to 22 May 1965 SEATO Exercise 'Sea Horse'
2 September 1966 Captain R J Lockwood RFA appointed as Master
18 May 1967 Mr J A Swallow RFA appointed as Chief Engineer Officer
30 October 1967 Captain Basil V Dobbie RFA appointed as Master
2 May 1968 Mr B W Edwards RFA appointed as Chief Engineer Officer
1 May 1972 de-stored out of service and laid up at Rosyth Dockyard, Scotland
24 January 1973 sailed Rosyth in tow for Spanish breakers along with RFA FORT SANDUSKY
10 February 1973 arrived at Castellon, Spain for breaking up by Varela Davalillo
March 1973 breaking up began
Additional information kindly supplied by Mr Michael Dyson
RFA Fort Rosalie (2)
Items of historic interest involving this ship: -
For details of this Fort Rosalie (2) please see Fort Grange
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