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HMT Duntroon

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HMT Duntroon.jpg
History
Name HMT Duntroon
Builder/Built 1939 Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson, Wallsend-on-Tyne
Type Passenger ship
Displacement 10,346 tons
Speed 19 knots


Remarks

Built for the Melbourne Steamship Company with a capacity of 373 passengers, and used on the east coast-Fremantle route. She saw military service between 1942 and 1949. Originally intended as an Armed Merchant Cruiser, she was found to be unsuitable for this role and was returned to her owners. In November 1940 the Duntroon collided with and sank the auxiliary minesweeper HMAS Goorangi near the entrance to Port Phillip Bay. All 24 crew of the Goorangi perished.


In February 1942 she was requisitioned for use as a troopship, and was used amongst other things to transport Australian troops home from the Middle East before commencing duties in the south Pacific. In November 1943 she was involved in a second sinking when she sank the destroyer, USS Perkins with the loss of 9 Americans near Ipoteto Island off the coast of New Guinea. Both sinkings were investigated and the Duntroon was found not to be responsible for either of them.


Her army duty complete in 1946 she was turned over to the RAN for transport duties with the Occupying Force in Japan. Returned to her civilian owners in 1950, and in 1961 sold to Kie Hock Shipping Company. Renamed Tong Hoo she was used on the Hong Kong-Indonesia passenger service. Sold again in 1966 to Africa Shipping Company, and renamed Lydia before being laid up in Singapore in 1967 and sailed to Taiwan for scrapping in 1973.

Soldiers carried

Fremantle to Adelaide 21 - 25 Jul 1941

2/48 Machine Gun Battalion

Colombo, Ceylon to Melbourne 25 March - 15 May 1942

Townsville to Port Moresby 8 - 11 May 1943

Townsville to Port Moresby 16 - 20 June 1943

Townsville to Port Moresby 31 July - 2 August 1943

Townsville to Port Moresby 6 - 8 August 1943

Townsville to Buna, Papua New Guinea 22 - 27 November 1943

Brisbane to Madang, New Guinea 25 August - 2 September 1944

Torokina, Bougainville to Sydney 13 - 19 February 1945

Morotai to Townsville 26 October to 9 November 1945