HMT Duntroon
From Our Contribution
History | |
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Name | HMT Duntroon |
Builder/Built | 1939 Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson, Wallsend-on-Tyne |
Type | Passenger ship |
Displacement | 10,346 tons |
Speed | 19 knots |
Contents
Remarks
Built for the Melbourne Steamship Company with a capacity of 373 passengers, and used on the east coast-Fremantle route. She saw military service between 1942 and 1949. Originally intended as an Armed Merchant Cruiser, she was found to be unsuitable for this role and was returned to her owners. In November 1940 the Duntroon collided with and sank the auxiliary minesweeper HMAS Goorangi near the entrance to Port Phillip Bay. All 24 crew of the Goorangi perished.
In February 1942 she was requisitioned for use as a troopship, and was used amongst other things to transport Australian troops home from the Middle East before commencing duties in the south Pacific. In November 1943 she was involved in a second sinking when she sank the destroyer, USS Perkins with the loss of 9 Americans near Ipoteto Island off the coast of New Guinea. Both sinkings were investigated and the Duntroon was found not to be responsible for either of them.
Her army duty complete in 1946 she was turned over to the RAN for transport duties with the Occupying Force in Japan. Returned to her civilian owners in 1950, and in 1961 sold to Kie Hock Shipping Company. Renamed Tong Hoo she was used on the Hong Kong-Indonesia passenger service. Sold again in 1966 to Africa Shipping Company, and renamed Lydia before being laid up in Singapore in 1967 and sailed to Taiwan for scrapping in 1973.