Built as a passenger ship under yard No 256 by Naval Construction & Armament., Barrow for the Great Western Railway, London.
06 March 1897 launched as the ROEBUCK.
Tonnage 1,281 gross, dim. 85.34 x 10.36 x 5.18m.
Two 3-cyl. triple expansion steamengines, 643 nhp., speed 20 knots.
May 1897 completed.
Used in the service between Weymouth to the Channel Islands.
19 July 1911 she left St Helier Harbour, Jersey for Guernsey with nice weather and no sea, but there was heavy fog after rounding Noirmont Point and with a speed of 17 knots she struck rocks in a position 300 metres off shore with about 200 feet of the ship stuck on the rocks, with a 100 foot gash in its side.
After distress flares were let off and the ship lifeboats were launched, after the lifeboat arrived and a tug, passengers were taken off within an hour after grounding.
The weather and sea were so good that the DUKE OF NORMANDY went alongside to take off the passenger’s luggage. Twenty tons of cargo was also transferred.
The ROEBUCK stayed on the rocks for eight days. A pinnacle of rock was penetrating her hull and making it impossible for the ship to be refloated.
Temporary repairs were made before on 28 July she could be moved to a safer position on the sands of St Brelade’s Bay, where the locals could walk around the ship.
The first attempt to move her to St Helier Harbour failed; she made to much water and had to be beached again in the Belcroute Bay.
Half August she was towed to St Helier were more repairs took place before she was towed to Southampton for permanent repair.
02 October 1914 hired by the British Admiralty and converted in a minesweeper.
Armament 2 – 12 pdr. gun.
December 1914 renamed in HMS ROEDEAN.
Crew 70.
13 January 1915 during bad weather she dragged her anchor and came in collision with the harbour service repair hulk IMPERIEUSE in the entrance of Longhope Sound, Hoy, Scapa Flow.
She sank and the wreck lies in 15m. depth of water, in 1953 and 1956 her height was reduced by explosives to increase the depth of water over the wreck.
Jersey 2011 £3 sgMS?, scott?
Source: Railway and other Steamers by Duckworth & Langmuir. http://www.guernsey-society.org.uk/donk ... le=Roebuck http://www.miramarshipindex.org.nz Shipwrecks Index of the British Isles Scotland by Richard & Bridget Larn.