Yard number 230 Completed November 1919 Length 77 m | Launched 28 August 1919 In service 1919 | |
Name SS Lake Ellithorpe (1919–1932)SS Texas Trader (1932–1940) Owner United States Shipping Board (1919–1927)New England, New York & Texas Steamship Corp. (1927–1928)Newtex Steamship Corporation (1928–1940) Builders Great Lakes Engineering Works, Ecorse | ||
SS Empire Kestrel was a 2,674 GRT, 5,050 DWT cargo ship built by Great Lakes Engineering Works of Ecorse, Michigan. Completed in 1919 as SS Lake Ellithorpe for the United States Shipping Board, she was sold to the New England, New York & Texas Steamship Corporation of New York in 1927, then to the Newtex Steamship Corporation of New York City in 1928. In 1932, she was renamed Texas Trader. In 1940 she was sold to the Ministry of War Transport. Reflagged as a British ship and renamed Empire Kestrel, she was managed by William Reardon Smith & Sons Co.
She was attacked on 16 August 1943 by an Italian Savoia-Marchetti S.79 aircraft, piloted by Lt. Vezio Terzi, and sunk by an aerial torpedo off the coast Algeria, near Bgayet, in position 37°10′N 04°35′E while part of Convoy UGS-13.