She was built in Port Glasgow by the shipbuilding company William Hamilton & Company Ltd. in a remarkably short time; her owners only signed the contract for her construction on November 3, 1925 and she was launched on March 31, 1926 ... in time for the 1926 sailing season. After preliminary trials she departed on her maiden voyage to New York on June 5, 1926.
The Red Cross Line relied mainly on American tourist traffic which was much affected by the Depression. The service was abandoned and at the end of 1928 the Line, and its three ships Nerissa, Rosalind and Silvia, was sold to Furness Withy.
The ships then became part of the Bermuda & West Indies Steamship Co. Ltd. The Nerissa continued on the New York, Halifax and St. Johns route until 1931 when she was switched to the New York to Bermuda. She also made voyages to Trinidad and Demerara.
In late 1939 the Nerissa was modified as an auxiliary transport with accommodation for 250 men and was fitted with a 4-inch gun, a Bofors gun and gun crews drawn from the Maritime Regiment of the Royal Artillery. Due to her capability to steam at a higher speed than the usual 9 knots (17 km/h; 10 mph) of escorted convoys, Nerissa sailed alone, since she was considered capable of outrunning enemy submarines.
On September 7, 1940, she left Liverpool bound for Halifax, with 34 evacuated children under the Children's Overseas Reception Board (CORB). Their final destination was British Columbia.
By April 1941 Nerissa had made 39 wartime crossings of the North Atlantic. Her 40th crossing began on April 21, 1941 at Halifax, Nova Scotia. She carried 145 Canadian servicemen, RAF and Norwegian Army Air Service personnel, Northern Electric technicians, members of the press and a number of civilians sailing as part of a Britain bound convoy. At 10:15 she separated from the convoy to make her crossing alone, and arrived at St. John's, Newfoundland on April 23, where her captain received his Admiralty orders and she sailed for Britain in the evening.
On April 30 she entered the area patrolled by the aircraft of the Royal Navy's Coastal Command. A Lockheed Hudson aircraft flew over her at nightfall and signaled that the area was clear of enemy submarines. At 11:30 she was struck amidships by a torpedo fired from U-552, 200 miles from her destination of Liverpool. The lifeboats were manned and in the process of being lowered when an explosion split the ship in two, destroying the lifeboats yet to be lowered. U-552 fired an additional two torpedoes to ensure the ship's sinking which had struck together three minutes after the first. 207 civilians, crew and soldiers were killed.
In the short time between the two impacts the ship's radio operator was able to send a Mayday signal along with the ship's position and at first light a Bristol Blenheim of Coastal Command circled the scene. The British destroyer HMS Veteran arrived an hour later at 07:50 and picked up the 84 survivors, who were transferred to the Flower class corvette HMS Kingcup and landed at Derry.
Click HERE for expanded information and passenger list.
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