She was built after a tanker design made by the Shell Company, and ordered by the English Ministry of War Transport. Her intended name was EMPIRE OIL.
Built by Blytshwood Shipbuilding Co. at Scotstoun, (I believe near Glasgow) for the Royal Navy.
23 July 1940 launched under the name DARKDALE, (the Dale class).
Tonnage 8.145 gross, displacement 17.000 tons. Dim. 483.2 x 61.2 x 33.1ft.
Powered by one 6 cyl. Burmeister & Wain diesel 3500 bhp., speed 11.5 knots, one screw.
Crew 40.
15 Nov. 1940 completed.
While under construction taken over by the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA).
When at anchor at Jamestown Bay and used as a supply tanker by the Royal Navy at St Helena she was torpedoed by U-68 under command of Korv. Kapt. Karl Friedrich Merten on 22 October 1941 at 00.15 a.m. The tanker exploded and was ripped in two, spilling and igniting its contents of oil, the water was covered by flames that could be felt by bystanders on the Jamestown waterfront. She sank with the loss of 39 crew and 2 military, only two survived the inferno. The Capt. and 6 crewmembers were ashore at the time of the explosion, and escaped unharmed.
Divers found in the 1990s that the bow part of the RFA DARKDALE is upside down on the seafloor, the stern section a few meters away lying on its port side with intact portholes still in places. There are numerous openings to the hull.
Lloyds War Losses, The Second World War Vol. 1. Dictionary of Disasters at Sea during the age of Steam 1824-1962. Jane’s fighting ships of World War II.
She is also on St Helena sg 692.
http://www.btinternet.com/`warships/Pos ... /dale1.htm
http://www.immersed.com/Issues/Articles ... rticle.htm