SS Dover Hill SS " Dover Hill " was a shelter deck cargo steamship built Northumberland Shipbuilding Co in Newcastle - upon - Tyne to a First World War standard design , launched on 17 December 1917 and completed in March 1918 . She had nine corrugated furnaces with a combined grate area of that heated three 180 lb / in single - ended boilers with a combined heating surface of . The boilers fed a 569 NHP triple expansion steam engine built by North Eastern Marine Engineering Co . Ltd . of Newcastle . She was equipped with direction finding equipment and radio . The ship was launched as " Maenwen " but after completion in March 1918 she entered service with Clan Line who named her Clan Macvicar . She spent most of her career under this name , but is noted for her Second World War service as " Dover Hill " . In 1936 the Dover Hill Steamship Co . bought " Clan Macvicar " , renamed her " Dover Hill " and placed her under the management of Counties Ship Management Ltd . Dover Hill SS Co was a one - ship company established under CSM control to own the ship . In the Second World War " Dover Hill " served with distinction on Arctic convoy duty . In the Normandy landings she was scuttled as a Corn Cob block ship for a Gooseberry Harbour . Spanish Civil War . In 1938 during the Spanish Civil War General Franco ' s nationalist insurgents issued a statement alleging that more than 200 British - registered merchant ships had been used to supply the Spanish Republic with " matériel " banned by the international non - intervention agreement . One of the ships accused was " Dover Hill " , which the statement claimed had carried a cargo of 200 lorries and 400 tons of matériel from a USSR Black Sea port to Alicante , passing through the Bosphorus on 20 April . The insurgents ' statement contained inaccuracies about many of the British ships to which it referred , to the extent that some of the companies and ships that it accused did not even exist . In reality every ship serving a Republican port had to carry a Non - Intervention Officer representing the Non - Intervention Committee , and the Royal Navy detained any ship suspected of carrying " matériel " and inspected her cargo , in many cases by having it all unloaded for inspection at Gibraltar or Malta . It is highly unlikely that " Dover Hill " supplied Spain with any goods banned by the Non - Intervention Agreement . Convoy JW 53 . On 23 January 1943 " Dover Hill " sailed from her anchorage off Gourock in the Firth of Clyde and on 25 January she anchored in Loch Ewe . On 15 February she sailed for the USSR as one of 28 merchant ships in Arctic convoy JW 53 . The flagship was the cruiser and the convoy ' s other escorts included the cruisers and , escort carrier and 15 destroyers . As the convoy sailed northwards it encountered heavy winds . Six merchant ships were damaged and diverted to Iceland along with " HMS Sheffield " and the armed trawler . A Royal Navy flotilla led by the cruiser relieved the original escorts off Iceland . However , during the storm " HMS Dasher " had suffered engine trouble and returned to the Firth of Clyde , leaving JW 53 without air cover . " Dover Hill " ' s deck cargo included drums of oil which were lost overboard in the storm . She was also carrying lorries in wooden cases , but these became damaged and then the lorries were lost overboard . Her crew managed to save her most valuable deck cargo , a number of tanks . The poor weather scattered the ships but the weather moderated and by 20 February its Royal Navy escorts reformed the remaining 22 merchant ships into the convoy . By now the convoy was sailing through pancake ice , which along with the naval escort ensured there were no U - boat attacks . However , on 24 February a Luftwaffe patrol aircraft shadowed the convoy and the next day Junkers Ju 88 aircraft bombed the convoy . " Dover Hill " was damaged and one of her gunners was wounded . The convoy reached the Kola Inlet on the northern coast of Russia on 27 February . 15 cargo ships from the convoy docked in Murmansk while seven others continued south to Archangel . Despite air attacks and adverse weather , JW 53 had lost no merchant ships " en route " . Air raids in Russia . " Dover Hill " unloaded at Murmansk . The Luftwaffe bombed the port , sinking the cargo ship " Ocean Freedom " at her moorings . After discharging her cargo " Dover Hill " moved to an anchorage in the Kola inlet . Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters armed with bomb racks repeatedly made low - level attacks on the ships at anchor , during which " Dover Hill " was damaged and some of her gunners wounded . However she shot down one Bf 109 and damaged another , which was then shot down by a ship astern of her at the anchorage . On 4 April " Dover Hill " was at Misukovo Anchorage north of Murmansk when two Ju - 88 bombers attacked her . Five bombs exploded in the sea around the ship . A sixth hit her and went through her main and tween decks but failed to explode . The minesweeper anchored astern of " Dover Hill " , ready to rescue any survivors if the bomb exploded . The bomb buried itself in coal in the ship ' s bunkers and a team of 19 volunteers dug out the coal to find it . The Luftwaffe made further air raids , and bombs exploding in the sea around the ship repeatedly caused coal to fall back into the hole that the volunteers were digging . The bomb was deep in the coal and it took the volunteers two days and nights to reach it . A Soviet bomb disposal specialist then defused it by unscrewing the primer and detonator and the volunteers disposed of the bomb over the side of the ship . On 17 May " Dover Hill " and three other ships left the Kola Inlet and went " via " the White Sea to Economia on the Northern Dvina River . On 18 July " Dover Hill " moved again to Molotovsk . On 26 November she and eight other ships sailed for London , where they arrived on 14 December . On 12 October 1943 , two months before " Dover Hill " reached London , the " London Gazette " had published the names of all 19 volunteers who dug out the bomb . 14 were awarded the King ' s Commendation for Brave Conduct and the other five were made Officers of the Order of the British Empire ( OBE ) . Further service . " Dover Hill " was repaired and taken over by the Ministry of War Transport , who placed her under the management of J & J Denholm Ltd of Sunderland . On 9 June 1944 " Dover Hill " was scuttled off Ouistreham on the Normandy coast as a Corn Cob block ship to protect the Gooseberry 5 Harbour for Sword Beach . Replacement ship . In 1946 CSM bought the SS " Empire Nairobi " , a standard Empire ship that had been built by Short Brothers in Sunderland in February 1945 , and renamed her " Dover Hill " . In 1951 CSM sold her to Italian owners who registered her under the Panamanian flag of convenience as " Basil " . In 1954 the British Steamship Co Ltd bought her and registered her in Great Britain as the " Ravenshoe " . She was managed by John Cory & Sons Ltd , Newport Monmouthshire . In 1960 she was sold again and registered in Panama as " Plate Shipper " . She was managed by PB Pandelis Ltd based in London . In 1961 she was sold again to owners in Turkey who renamed her " Umran " . In 1966 she changed hands in Turkey again and was renamed " Tan 2 " . She was scrapped in Istanbul , Turkey in 1968 .