SS Empire Attendant

Passenger Cargo Vessel
Built by Barclay, Curle & Co,
Completed: 1921
Owned by Andrew Weir & Co. London
Operating for MOWT.
7.524 tons
Length: 464 ft
Beam: 58 ft 4 in
Service Speed: 12 knots
8,441 tons

The Empire Attendant (Master: Thomas Grundy) sailed from Liverpool as part of Convoy OS.33 with a cargo of stores, vehicles and a 'quantity of explosives' bound for Durban and Karachi. On July 10, 1942, the escort vessel HMS Pelican signalled the Admiralty that SS Empire Attendant (62) had broken down for the seventh time at 1645 and the vessel was not within 20 miles at sunset. At 0330 hours on July 15, 1942, South of the Canary Islands and while out of contact with the convoy she was torpedoed and sunk by U-582 . There were no survivors and the master, 49 crew members and nine gunners were lost.
U-582 reported the position of the sinking as grid reference DT 615323 (23.48N, 21.51W ).

History: On 2 Mar, 1940, the SS Domala was bombed by a German aircraft, set on fire and beached in the Solent. It was rebuilt as a Steam Merchant Ship and renamed Empire Attendant.