SS Lambridge

The Ayrshire Dockyard Company Ltd. built the ship to the UK Shipping Controller's standard "B" type cargo ship design. She had nine corrugated furnaces with a combined grate area of 119 square feet (11 m²) heating three 180 lb_f/in² single-ended boilers with a combined heating surface of 7,647 square feet (710 m²).[1] The boilers fed a Dunsmuir and Jackson three-cylinder 510 NHP triple expansion steam engine that drove a single screw propeller.[1]

The ship was launched in 1917 as Glennevis for the Western Steam Ship Company of Glasgow.[2] In 1922 she was sold to Furness Withy who renamed her African Prince.[2] In 1936 she was sold to the Dorset Steamship Company, which renamed her Pentridge Hill.[4] Dorset SS Co was a London-based company controlled by Counties Ship Management.[4]

In 1939 she was sold to Sir Wm. Reardon Smith & Sons, Ltd, who renamed her Botlea.[5] In September and October 1939 she became one of nine merchant ships that the Admiralty acquired to convert into Q-ships.[2] Botlea was commissioned into the Royal Navy as HMS Lambridge with the pennant number X15. The Q-ships were not successful and from February 1941 she served as the armed merchant cruiser Lambridge.[3]

After the Second World War the Admiralty used her to dispose of redundant chemical ammunition.[2] On 30 December 1945 she was scuttled in the North Atlantic beyond the continental shelf, 120 miles (190 km) northwest of Ireland.[7] Her wreck is at 55°30′N 11°00′W in 8,200 feet (2,500 m) of water.[7]

Lambridge was one of four redundant cargo ships that the Admiralty used to dispose of chemical ammunition at the same site in the North Atlantic.[2] The others were Empire Simba on 11 September, Empire Cormorant on 1 October and Wairuna on 30 October.[2]

Approximate position of Lambridge's wreck