SS Aenos

Career	60px
Name:	SS Aenos
Operator:	Zephyros Steamship Co Ltd, Argostoli
Builder:	Bartram & Sons Ltd, South Dock, Sunderland
Completed:	1910
Renamed:	Launched as Cedar Branch renamed Aenos in 1930
Fate:	sunk on 17 October 1940
General characteristics
Class and type:	Steam merchant ship
Tonnage:	3,554 tons
Crew:	29

The SS Aenos was a British built Greek steam merchant ship. She was launched in 1910 and sunk whilst carrying supplies to the UK during the Second World War.

Pre war career

Aenos was built in the yards of Bartram & Sons Ltd, South Dock, Sunderland, being completed in 1910. as the SS Cedar Branch. She entered service as SS Cedar Branch with the Zephyros Steamship Co Ltd, of Argostoli and was homeported in that city. Cedar Branch was renamed Aenos in 1930.

Wartime career and sinking

She had a short wartime career. Her first international convoy came when she joined the ill-fated convoy SC-7 for the voyage to Britain from North America. Aenos sailed from Sorel to Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada, from where the convoy sailed on 5 October 1940, bound for Manchester and carrying a cargo of 6,276 tons of wheat. The convoy had only a single escort to start with, the sloop HMS Scarborough. The convoy was located by a wolf pack of U-boats from 16 October, and they quickly overwhelmed the convoy, sinking many of the ships. Aenos, straggling behind the main convoy, was the first of these ships to be sunk. She was spotted by U-38 at 09.57 hours on 17 October. The u-boat fired a G7e torpedo at her, but it missed. U-38 then surfaced and fired on the Aenos with her deck gun until she sank at 10.52 hours. Out of a total complement of 29, four crew members were lost. The surviving 25 crew members were picked up by one of the other stragglers, the Canadian steam merchant Eaglescliffe Hall. They were landed at Gourock the next day.

References

• SS Aenos at Uboat.net
• Arnold Hague's convoy database