RAFA Bishopdale

Gordon was a 12 tonne ‘turnabout’ 2nd class torpedo launch, ordered in February 1885, and built at the J S White & Co shipyard at Cowes, Isle of Wight, for the Victorian Navy at a cost of £3250. Its hull was constructed of mahogany, and it had a double rudder configuration with one forward and one aft to aid in manoeuvrability.

It was shipped to Melbourne, Victoria as deck cargo, on board the SS Angerton, leaving Gravesend, England on 22 December 1885 and arriving in Melbourne on 11 February 1886. The vessel was named in honour of General Charles George Gordon who had been killed at Khartoum, in the Sudan, in January 1885.

The period March to late June 1943 was spent providing fuel to RAN and US Navy ships in Queensland waters. It then began operating at Milne Bay, New Guinea from July 1943 until March 1944; again refuelling Allied warships. The only interruption to this was the occasional return to Queensland ports to replenish its fuel bunkers. On 11 November 1943, while part of a convoy in Queensland waters, it collided with the merchant ship SS Bunker Hill and suffered some damage to its stern and starboard Oerlikon gun mountings. The Bunker Hill incurred minor scrapes and scratches to its paintwork.

In early March 1944 Bishopdale steamed south to Sydney for maintenance and after completing this headed north again, this time to Humboldt Bay (Dutch New Guinea) which became its new forward refuelling location in late April. This was its new ‘home’ for the next 8 months providing the essential ‘black oil’ to keep the RAN and US Navy warships in the fight as Japanese forces were driven out of New Guinea and preparations were made for the liberation of the Philippines. Rather than return Bishopdale to Australian waters to refuel, its bunkers were replenished by larger civilian tankers.

In mid-November 1944 Bishopdale departed Humboldt Bay as part of Task Group 77.7 (TG 77.7) supporting the Allied landings at Leyte Gulf in the Philippines. Again, its task was to supply fuel and lubricating oil to Allied warships,and it arrived at San Pedro Bay in late November. The landings at Leyte Gulf were hotly contested by Japanese naval and air forces with the first of the kamikaze attacks beginning with aircraft deliberately being flown by their pilots into Allied ships.

On 14 December 1944 Bishopdale was in San Pedro Bay when it was struck by a Japanese ‘Val’ dive bomber. The kamikaze aircraft hit the ships forward mast; then crashing into the starboard upper bridge and the No.3 wing tank where it exploded. Bishopdale suffered significant damage and 3 of its ship’s company died of wounds over the next few days. They were 26 year old Able Seaman Stuart Savage (one of the ship’s Australian DEMS gunners), Pumpmen Umar Abdullah (Omer Abdoola) who died on 15 December 1945 and Coner A Sheik who died on the 16th.

Despite the damage and casualties, the tanker remained at San Pedro Bay providing fuel to Allied ships until the end of the month. On 30 December 1944 it sailed for Hollandia (now Jayapura) in Dutch New Guinea for repairs which took several months. Able Seaman Savage and Pumpman Sheik were originally buried in the US Military Cemetery at Leyte Gulf; but they were later re-interred at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery at Sai Wan Bay in Hong Kong. Pumpman Abdullah (Abdoola) was buried at sea and his name recorded on the Mumbai/Chittagong 1939-1945 War Memorial.

The ships Master Commander Murray William Westlake, RNR was subsequently awarded a Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) and 3 other crew members (Chief Officer WE Tate, First Pumpman Sheikh Allen St Hassan, and Second Pumpman Omar Abdoola) were mentioned in dispatches. The awards were announced in the London Gazette on 18 December 1945 with the citation for all 4 men reading:

For courage, efficiency and skill in damage control when a Japanese aircraft struck the RFA Bishopdale, in San Pedro Bay, Leyte Gulf on 14th December 1944. Two compartments were flooded, fire broke out and the ship took a list. By prompt action it was brought back to an even keel and ready to continue fuelling within half-an-hour of the attack.

Bishopdale returned to operational duties in mid-May 1945 and arrived at the island of Morotai (Netherlands East Indies) later that month. Allied forces had landed on Morotai in September 1944 and soon had an air base operating for strikes on the Philippines and Borneo. Japanese forces were still present on the island and, while isolated, did not surrender until September 1945. The tanker remained at Morotai until later September 1945.

Following the end of the Second World War Bishopdale returned to Royal Navy service and proceeded via Subic Bay (The Philippines) to Hong Kong. Its last known fuelling of an RAN vessel was the corvette HMAS Ballarat, at Hong Kong, on 15 November 1945. It then operated far and wide delivering fuel from Abadan to Hong Kong and Singapore during 1946.

It occasionally visited Australia, delivering a cargo of fuel to the Chowder Bay Naval Fuel Installation (Sydney) in September 1948 and to Melbourne in November 1949, but Bishopdale mainly operated in the Indian Ocean, Mediterranean, Atlantic Ocean and West Indies for the remainder of its career.

Bishopdale was laid up in Reserve (at Devonport, England) on 8 October 1959 and in mid- January 1970 was sold for scrap. It arrived at Bilbao, Spain on 17 February 1970 for breaking up.