The SS Clan Chisholm was a British cargo steamer. She was torpedo

Torpedo

The modern torpedo is a self-propelled missile weapon with an explosive warhead, launched above or below the water surface, propelled underwater towards a target, and designed to detonate either on contact with it or in proximity to it.The term torpedo was originally employed for...

ed and sunk in the Second World War whilst carrying supplies from India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 to the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

.

Career and sinking

The Clan Chisholm was one of the Clan Line

Clan Line

The Clan Line was a passenger and cargo shipping company that operated in one incarnation or another from the late nineteenth century and into the twentieth century.-Foundation and early years:...

's Cameron class

Cameron class steamer

The Cameron class steamers were a ship class of steamships of the Clan Line.*Clan Macauley, launched 1936, bombed at Malta, scrapped 1963., launched 1937, sailed in convoy from Gibraltar and torpedoed and sunk by in October 1939....

 of steam merchant ship, built by the Greenock & Grangemouth Dockyard Co Ltd

Greenock Dockyard Company

The Greenock Dockyard Company was a Scottish shipbuilding and ship repair firm located at Greenock, on the River Clyde.-History:The company was established by J E Scott of Greenock, with the yard at Cartsdyke being taken over in 1879 by Russell and Company, of Greenock, which later became Lithgows...

, Greenock

Greenock

Greenock is a town and administrative centre in the Inverclyde council area in United Kingdom, and a former burgh within the historic county of Renfrewshire, located in the west central Lowlands of Scotland...

 and launched on 5 August 1937. She was homeported in Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

.

She was used during the Second World War to bring supplies to Britain. Her last voyage was in 1939 with convoy HG-3, from Calcutta to Glasgow, via Liverpool

Liverpool

Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

. She was under the command of her master, Francis T. Stenson and carried 9,550 tons of general cargo, including pig iron

Pig iron

Pig iron is the intermediate product of smelting iron ore with a high-carbon fuel such as coke, usually with limestone as a flux. Charcoal and anthracite have also been used as fuel...

, jute

Jute

Jute is a long, soft, shiny vegetable fibre that can be spun into coarse, strong threads. It is produced from plants in the genus Corchorus, which has been classified in the family Tiliaceae, or more recently in Malvaceae....

 and tea

Tea

Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by adding cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant to hot water. The term also refers to the plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world...

. At 20.35 hours on 17 October, she was sighted by the , sailing some 150 miles northwest of Cape Finisterre

Cape Finisterre

right|thumb|300px|Position of Cape Finisterre on the [[Iberian Peninsula]]Cape Finisterre is a rock-bound peninsula on the west coast of Galicia, Spain....

. U-48 struck the Clan Chisholm with a torpedo, sinking her in a short space of time. Four crew members were lost in the sinking, with the master and 41 of the survivors being rescued by the Swedish

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 motor merchant Bardaland and landed at Kirkwall

Kirkwall

Kirkwall is the biggest town and capital of Orkney, off the coast of northern mainland Scotland. The town is first mentioned in Orkneyinga saga in the year 1046 when it is recorded as the residence of Rögnvald Brusason the Earl of Orkney, who was killed by his uncle Thorfinn the Mighty...

. Another 17 were picked up by the Norwegian

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

whaler Skudd, and the remaining 15 were rescued by the .