Built as a cargo-passenger vessel by Harland & Wolf at Belfast for the British & African S.N. Co.
26 August 1926 launched under the name APAPA.
Tonnage 9.337 gross, 5.471 net, dim. 137.39 x 19 x 9.55m. (draught).
Powered by two 12 cyl. double acting diesel engines, manufactured by builders, 1.651 nhp., speed 15 knots. Twin screws.
Passenger accommodation for 243 first and 70 second class, crew 130.
Used in the service between Liverpool and the West Coast of Africa. She entered service in Jan. 1927.
1933 Transferred to the Elder Dempster Lines Ltd.
During the evacuation of France in June 1940, she transported troops back to England from the Gironde River below Bordeaux.
She was thereafter kept in the service to West Africa.
She cleared Freetown on 27 October 1940 under command of Capt. Vaughan Davies and a crew of 158, and 95 passengers, and a cargo of 3.500 produce, in convoy SL53.
15 Nov. 1940 in a position west of Ireland at 09.30 a.m. on her final leg to Liverpool a single Focke-Wulf FW200 from Gruppe 1 KG40and operating from the Northern France dived out of the clouds. The APAPA as Commodore ship was singled out. The plane dropt two bombs. One of the bomb was an near miss, hitting the water amidships on starboard side at a distance of 20 feet, not much damage was sustained, but the other bomb penetrating No 3 hatch and exploding, blowing away a substantial part of the port hull plating. The engine room got much damage and the explosion wrecked the main engines. The cargo of palm kernels caught fire in hold No 3, and due to loss of power the pumps were not working, and the vessel was lost and she was abandoned in about 54 34N 16 47W.
The MARY KINGSLEY came very close alongside, and many passengers and crew were able to leap over, other were rescued from the lifeboats. 18 crew and 5 passengers were lost.
On the stamp of Nigeria, she is shown alongside the wharf at Apapa.
Nigeria 1936 ½d sg34, scott38.
Source: Marine News 1993/30. Sea Breezes 1990. Dictionary of Disasters at Sea during the age of steam.
Lloyds War Losses, the Second World War. Elder Dempster Lines by Duncan Haws.