SS Minnedosa
SS Minnedosa was a 15,000 ton steam ocean liner the hull of which was built in Glasgow on the River Clyde for the Canadian Pacific Shipping Line by Barclay Curle, under sub-contract to Harland and Wolff, in Belfast. The ship had been ordered by the Hamburg America Line but when World War I broke out, the ship was purchased by Canadian Pacific. It was launched in Glasgow on 17 October 1917 and towed to Belfast for completion, being handed over to Canadian Pacific on 21 November 1918.
After initial voyages as a troop ship bringing home Canadian soldiers, she was used on the Liverpool to Saint John, New Brunswick run and called at all the major transatlantic ports. She carried numerous immigrants to Canada and the United States and for a period in the late 1920s was commanded by Captain Ronald Niel Stuart, VC and was entitled to fly the Blue Ensign as a result. The ship was refitted in 1925, which increased her overall tonnage.
In 1935 she was sold for scrap, but was purchased by Mussolini's Italian government and refitted as a troopship named Piemonte. During World War II, she was torpedoed and damaged in the Mediterranean Sea north of Sicily by the Royal Navy submarine on 17 November 1942. She put into Messina, Sicily, where she was withdrawn from service. She was scuttled when Axis forces evacuated Messina in August 1943. Her wreck was raised in 1949 and towed to La Spezia, Italy, for scrapping.
Minnedosa had a nearly identical sister ship SS Melita, also sold to the Italian government in 1935, which became the troop ship Liguria, scuttled at Tobruk in 1941.
