History
United Kingdom
Name	Gracechurch[3]
Owner	Gracechurch Shipping Co.[3]
Operator	James, Muers & Co.[3]
Port of registry	London[1]
Builder	William Doxford & Sons, Sunderland[1][2]
Launched	25 February 1930[2]
Completed	April 1930[1][2]
Out of service	1933[3]
Identification	Code Letters LFSR [1] UK official number 161390[1]
Fate	Sold[3]
Name	Peebles[4]
Owner	B.J. Sutherland & Co[3]
Operator	B.J. Sutherland & Co
Port of registry	Newcastle-upon-Tyne[3]
Acquired	1933[3]
Out of service	1936[3]
Fate	Sold
Name	Mill Hill[4]
Namesake	Mill Hill, north London
Owner	Mill Hill Steam Ship Co, Ltd.[4]
Operator	Counties Ship Management Co Ltd, London[3][2]
Port of registry	Newcastle-upon-Tyne[4]
Acquired	1936[3]
Identification	Call sign GTJL [4] UK official number 161390[4]
Fate	Sunk by torpedo 30 August 1940[3][2]
General characteristics
Type	Cargo ship
Tonnage	4,318 GRT;[1] tonnage under deck 4,025;[1] 2,600 NRT[1]
Length	320.4 ft (97.7 m)[1]
Beam	52.9 ft (16.1 m)[1]
Height	24.9 ft (7.6 m)[1]
Installed power	368 NHP[1]
Propulsion	3-cylinder triple expansion steam engine;[1] single screw
Crew	34[2]

SS Gracechurch was a UK 4,318 GRT cargo ship built by William Doxford & Sons at Pallion on Wearside in 1930.^[1] She twice changed owners and names, becoming SS Peebles in 1933 and SS Mill Hill in 1936. She was sunk by a German submarine in August 1940.

Engines

The ship had nine corrugated furnaces with a combined grate area of 187 square feet (17 m²) feeding three 180 lb_f/in² single-ended boilers with a combined heating surface of 6,105 square feet (567 m²).^[1]

Names and owners

Gracechurch was first owned by Gracechurch Shipping Co of Newcastle and managed by James, Muers & Co of Cardiff.^[3] In 1933 she was sold to B.J. Sutherland & Co who renamed her Peebles.

In 1936 she was sold to the Mill Hill Steam Ship Co Ltd,^[4] which was controlled by Counties Ship Management (an offshoot of the Rethymnis & Kulukundis shipbroking company of London^[5]) who renamed her Mill Hill.^[3]

Loss

Approximate position of Gracechurch's wreck

On 16 August 1940 Mill Hill left Halifax, Nova Scotia as a member of convoy HX 66A laden with pig iron and scrap steel^[6] for Middlesbrough, England.^[2] Between 0220 and 0248 hrs on 30 August 58 miles off Cape Wrath in the north of Scotland U-32 torpedoed the convoy, sinking three ships.^[2] One was Mill Hill, which sank within a few minutes with the loss of all hands.^[2]

Replacement ships

Gracechurch was the third of four ships that B.J. Sutherland & Co named Peebles.^[3] When Sutherland sold her in 1936, William Doxford & Sons completed a new 4,982-ton cargo ship MV Peebles for Sutherland.^[3] She survived the Second World War and in 1951 Sutherland sold her to Westralian Farmers Transport who renamed her Swanstream.^[3] In 1957 Westralian sold to J. Manners & Co. of Hong Kong who renamed her San Fernando.^[3] In 1965 Manners sold to her to Yong & Lee Timber who renamed her Phoenician Star.^[3] She was scrapped at Hong Kong in 1967.^[3]

Gracechurch was the first of two ships that Counties Ship Management named Mill Hill. In 1947 CSM bought the 7,219-ton Liberty ship SS Samdon and renamed her SS Mill Hill. Samdon had been built by New England Shipbuilding Corporation of Portland, Maine in 1943.^[7] In 1949 she was transferred from CSM to a new Rethymnis and Kulukundis company, London and Overseas Freighters, retaining the name Mill Hill. In 1951 LOF sold her to new owners who renamed her Educator.^[5] She was scrapped in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1961.^[8]