SS Gasfire
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| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | Gasfire |
| Owner | Gas Light and Coke Company |
| Operator | Stephenson, Clarke & Assoc Cos |
| Port of registry |  London |
| Route | Tyneside — London |
| Builder | SP Austin & Son, Ltd, Sunderland |
| Yard number | 338 |
| Completed | October 1936 |
| Identification |
|
| Fate | Sunk by mine, 21 June 1941 |
| General characteristics | |
| Tonnage | |
| Length | 318.4 ft (97.0 m) |
| Beam | 45.7 ft (13.9 m) |
| Draught | 19 ft 10+1⁄2 in (6.06 m) |
| Depth | 20.0 ft (6.1 m) |
| Installed power | 259 NHP |
| Propulsion |
|
| Armament | (as DEMS) |
| Notes | sister ship: Mr. Therm |
SS Gasfire was a British steam collier of the Gas Light and Coke Company (GLCC). She was built in Sunderland in 1936, survived severe damage from being torpedoed in 1940 and was sunk by a mine in the North Sea in 1941.
In 1936 SP Austin & Son, Ltd at Sunderland on the River Wear built a pair of colliers for the GLCC, completing Mr. Therm in May[1] and her sister ship Gasfire in October.[2] At more than 2,970 GRT[3] each, they were as large as many ocean-going cargo ships, but they were built for a North Sea coastal route, bringing coal from the Great Northern Coalfield of North East England to the GLCC's Beckton Gas Works on the River Thames.
Gasfire had six corrugated furnaces with a combined grate area of 82 square feet (8 m2) that heated two single-ended boilers with a combined heating surface of 3,732 square feet (347 m2). These fed steam at 200 lbf/in2 to a three-cylinder triple expansion steam engine built by North East Marine Engineering Co of Newcastle upon Tyne. The engine was rated at 259 NHP and drove a single screw.[2]
The GLCC contracted management of the two ships to Stephenson, Clarke and Associated Companies,[2] which had managed all of the GLCC fleet since before the First World War.
