Empire Hope
1942
(Santa Rosa P8)
- Type: Refrigerated cargo liner
- Displacement: 12,688 tons
- Dimensions: 540 x 70 ft.
- Machinery: Diesel, twin screws = 16 knots
- Builder: Harland & Wolff, Ltd., Belfast, Northern Ireland, 1941
- Service: One of six fast refrigerated cargo liners built by this yard during the war to a Shaw, Savill design. After two voyages to Australia and New Zealand, she was chosen, because of her speed, as the newest ship for the Pedestal Convoy to Malta. On 11 Aug 1942 she suffered 18 near misses from aircraft bombs in 30 minutes. These so damaged her engines she became a sitting duck. Two further hits set her afire and she was abandoned, her crew being rescued by the destroyer HMS Penn. Just before midnight on 12 Aug she was hit by a torpedo from the Italian submarine Bronzo and had to be sunk later the next day by the escort destroyer HMS Bramhan off Galeta Island.
Up