MV Tulagi
Port side view of cargo ship MV Tulagi on 17 March 1940
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| History | |
|---|---|
| Name: | MV Tulagi |
| Owner: | Burns Philp |
| Port of registry: | Hong Kong |
| Builder: | Hong Kong and Whampoa Dock, Kowloon, Hong Kong |
| Yard number: | 804 |
| Launched: | 30 March 1939 |
| Completed: | July 1939 |
| Out of service: | 28 March 1944 |
| Identification: | U.K. official number 172755 |
| Fate: | Sunk on 28 March 1944 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Cargo ship |
| Tonnage: | |
| Length: | 254 ft 6 in (77.57 m) (overall) |
| Beam: | 44 ft 2 in (13.46 m) |
| Draught: | 19 ft 6 in (5.94 m) |
| Depth: | 24 ft 10 in (7.57 m) |
| Installed power: |
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| Propulsion: | 2 × screw propeller |
| Speed: | 12 knots (22 km/h) (service) |
The MV Tulagi was a merchant ship built in 1939 and operated by the Burns Philp shipping line to carry cargo between the Pacific Islands and Australian ports. With the outbreak of World War II the Tulagi formed part of the Allied merchant navy fleet supplying the war effort throughout the Pacific and Indian Ocean theatres.
Tulagi was a cargo ship built by Hong Kong and Whampoa Dock of Kowloon, Hong Kong (yard no. 804) for shipping line Burns Philp. She was designed to carry produce from the Pacific to Mexico, a new enterprise for the company. She was launched on 30 March 1939 and was completed that July.
She measured 2,281 gross register tons (GRT), 2,550 long tons deadweight (DWT), 254 feet 6 inches (77.57 m) long (overall), and 44 feet 2 inches (13.46 m) abeam. Her draught was 19 feet 6 inches (5.94 m).
She was equipped with two 6-cylinder Harland and Wolff diesel engines of the Burmeister & Wain type, built under sublicense by Hong Kong and Whampoa Dock. These two-stroke cycle single acting engines had a combined power output of 2,400 bhp (1,800 kW) and drove twin screw propellers. The ship had a service speed of 12 knots (22 km/h).
In the early part of the Second World War, the Tulagi had led a charmed life, surviving an intense Japanese air attack on the 16 February Allied convoy carrying reinforcements and supplies to Kupang (escorted by the heavy cruiser USS Houston, the destroyer USS Peary), and the surprise Japanese attack on Darwin on 19 February 1942.
The Tulagi's luck ran out in March 1944 while undertaking a voyage from Sydney to Colombo in Ceylon, carrying 1800 tons of flour and 380 bags of mail. In command was Captain Leonard Walter "Dusty" Millar, with a crew of 15 Australian officers, 26 Indian seaman, 7 Malay and 5 Royal Australian Navy Reservist (RANR) Gunners, making a total complement of 54 personnel.
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