H.M.S. Queen Emma
4.180
1941
(Noordzee NZ-10)
- Class: Mercantile LSI(M) Conversion
- Displacement: 4,353 tons
- Dimensions: 380' (oa) x 47' x 13'6"
- Machinery: 2-shaft Sulzer diesels, 12,500bhp = 23 knots
- Armament: 2-12pdr, 2-2pdr, 4-20mm
- Landing craft: 6 LCa, 2 LSM
- Troops: 372
- Crew: 227
- Builder: De Schelde, Vlissingen
- Launched: 14 Jan 1939
- Completed: 19 May 1939
- Acquired: 15 May 1940
- Commissioned: 22 Jan 1941
- Notes: Built as the Dutch civilian passenger liner MS Koningin Emma, after Queen Emma of the Netherlands, and operated by Stoomvaart Maatschappij Zeeland (SMZ) (The Zealand Steamship Company) between Flushing and Harwich, along with her sister ship, MS Prinses Beatrix. With capacity for 1,800 passengers, she entered service 4 Jun 1939, only to be withdrawn from service a few weeks later and confined to port when war broke out.
After fleeing to Britain from the German invasion in May 1940, she was requisitioned by the British Ministry of War Transport. She ferried French troops rescued from Dunkirk back to Brest on two trips in Jun, returning to Plymouth with British troops, and a final trip to Bayonne to remove evacuees. She then took part in the British occupation of Iceland.
Formally taken over by the Admiralty in Sep 1940, she was renamed HMS Queen Emma and converted to a troopship at Harland and Wolff's yard in Belfast.
During the war her main role was transporting British Commandos, and she participated in the Lofoten Islands Raid and the Dieppe Raid. She had the advantage of a high speed that allowed hit and run operations. Later designated as a Landing Ship, Infantry (Medium) she took part in the landings in North Africa, Sicily (damaged by German air attack) and Normandy. She operated in the Indian Ocean, and in the Dutch East Indies after the end of the war.
In 1946 she was returned to her owners, renamed Koningin Emma, rebuilt and continued to operate as a ferry from the Hook of Holland until 1969, when she was scrapped in Antwerp, Belgium.
Sistership Prinses Beatrix had a very similar history, serving during the war as HMS Princess Beatrix in many of the same operations.
Up