Name El Grillo Tonnage 7264 grt Launched 1922 Builder Armstrong Whitworth | Type Merchant vessel Beam 17.5 m (57 ft 5 in) Length 134 m | |
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Operator The Bowring Steamship Co., Liverpool Fate Sunk after German air raid, 10 February 1944 | ||
The SS El Grillo was a British oil tanker sunk without casualties by a German air attack at Seyðisfjörður, Iceland on 10 February 1944.
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Iceland, which remained neutral during World War II, had been occupied by Britain in May 1940 and, in April 1941, by the United States.
"El Grillo" is Spanish for "The Cricket".
History
The steam ship SS El Grillo was built in 1922 at Armstrong W. G. & Whitworth Co. Ltd., Newcastle-Upon-Tyne and operated by The Bowring Steamship Co., based at Liverpool.
On 10 February 1944, the ship was at anchor at Seyðisfjörður, carrying a cargo of bunker oil. The ship was not unarmed, being a Defensively Equipped Merchant Vessel, and carrying anti-aircraft guns as well as depth charges.
While at anchor, the ship was attacked by three German Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condors from the I./KG 40, stationed in occupied Norway, and heavily damaged. The captain of El Grillo decided to scuttle the ship to prevent it and other ships at Seyðisfjörður from becoming more of a target.
Wreck
The wreck of El Grillo remains at the bottom of the fjord at Seyðisfjörður, in a depth between 22 and 45 metres, lying more or less completely upright. It is one of the most popular diving spots in Iceland.
The wreck continued to leak oil up until the 2000s, when a Norwegian contractor was hired to dispose of the estimated 2,000 tonnes of oil remaining in the ship, which was carried out in 2002. At the same time, unexploded ordnance was also to be removed from the ship. The Icelandic Coast Guard, however, assumed that many of the more accessible shells had already been removed by scuba divers.
El Grillo beer
Eyþór Þórisson, a restaurant owner in Seyðisfjörður, begun brewing a beer after his own recipe in the mid-2000s which he named after the sunken tanker El Grillo. The front label of the bottle features a picture of the sinking ship while the back side label tells the story of the sinking of the tanker.