SS Taber Park

Taber Park was a Park ship freighter, built in 1944. She was sunk by torpedo from a German submarine U-boat on March 13, 1945. She was completed on 28 August 1944, by the company Foundation Maritime, in the Pictou Shipyard in Pictou County, Nova Scotia, Canada. Her hull # is 16. The ship was owned by the Park Steamship Company, which was owned by Canada's Federal government. The government had built 400 vessels during World War II. Built as a merchant steamship constructed for Canada’s Merchant Navy in 1944. She was named after an actual park in Canada, in the province of Alberta. She was operated for the Government by Canada Shipping Company. Taber Park should not to be taken as the Tabor Park a Norway cargo ship that was torpedoed, shelled and sunk in the Indian Ocean on 9 March 1943.[2][3][4]

A typical Park ship being launched
History
NameSS Taber Park
NamesakeTaber Park
OwnerPark Steamship Company
BuilderPictou Shipyard
Launched15 June 1944
Completed28 August 1944
FateSank torpedo from U-boat on March 13, 1945
General characteristics
Tonnage
Length315 ft 5 in (96.14 m)
Beam46 ft 5 in (14.15 m)
Depth22 ft 9 in (6.93 m)
Installed powerTriple expansion steam engine
PropulsionScrew propellor
Crew34, plus 4 DEMS gunners
Armament

World War II

Taber Park was on a voyage from Port of Tyne to London with coal. She was part of convoy FS1753. She was torpedoed and sunk in the North Sea (52°22′N 1°53′E) by a Kriegsmarine midget submarine.[5] She rest off Aldeburgh near Great Yarmouth. Of her crew there were only three survivors. Lost were 24 crew and 4 gunners. Her captain for the voyage was J.J. Parsons, one of the survivors.[6] The lost are remembered in The Royal Canadian Naval Ships Memorial Monument in Spencer Smith Park in Burlington, Ontario.[7] [8][9][10]

A typical Park ship docked in 1943
WWII Navy Memorial in Spencer Smith Park in Burlington, Ontario

Crew

British and Canadian merchantmen carried volunteer naval gunners called Defensively equipped merchant ship or DEMS gunners. The American ships carried Naval Armed Guard gunners. Merchant seamen crewed the merchant ships of the British Merchant Navy which kept the United Kingdom supplied with raw materials, arms, ammunition, fuel, food and all of the necessities of a nation at war throughout World War II literally enabling the country to defend itself. In doing this they sustained a considerably greater casualty rate than almost every branch of the armed services and suffered great hardship. Seamen were aged from fourteen through to their late seventies.[11][12]

See also

References
  1. merchant ships, Park armament
  2. Syd C. Heal (1999). A Great Fleet of Ships: The Canadian Forts & Parks. Vanwell Publishing. p. 285. ISBN 9781551250236.
  3. Canadian Shipping and Marine Engineering News, Volume 18. Maclean Publishing. 1946. p. 29. Retrieved 2017-03-29. Then there was the famous Greenhill Park, now sailing the seas again as Phaeax II under the flag of Greece.
  4. Robert G. Halford (1995). The unknown navy: Canada's World War II merchant navy. Vanwell Publishing. pp. 39, 144. ISBN 9781551250168. Retrieved 2017-03-29. The badly damaged ship was sold by War Assets to Greek interests who had her rebuilt to sail again as the Phaeax II.
  5. "Park Ships N-Z". Mariners. Retrieved 6 January 2012.
  6. Casualty List for Canadian Merchant Seamen WWII, Compiled by Billy McGee, MN 1980-1992
  7. Royal Canadian Naval Ships Memorial Monument
  8. uboat.net, midget submarine
  9. shipbuildinghistory.com Park Ships
  10. mariners, Park ship N to Z
  11. Commonwealth War Graves Commission records
  12. Dictionary of Disasters at Sea during the Age of Steam
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