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The Sirikishna was built in Dundee by the Caledon Shipbuilding & Engineering Company in 1936, along with her sister ship Shekatika, and was of a modern design having a cruiser stern and a displacement of 5458 tons.
She sailed in 1936 and yet I have been unable to find any mention of her until she arrived in Avonmouth on the 3rd January 1941, with 7934 tons of grain from Trois Rivieres (3 rivers) on the St Lawrence River near Quebec in Canada. She remained docked in Avonmouth during the heavy air raid of 17/1/41, where sailor Frank McIssac was injured by shrapnel in the right groin and hip from a high explosive bomb, whilst assisting others to put out incendiaries, and he was taken to hospital and did not sail with the ship.
Leaving Avonmouth in ballast on 6th February 1941, she headed up the Irish Sea where she joined with other ships off Liverpool on 16th February to start forming convoy OB288, and then they proceeded towards the Clyde to join with the remaining ships on 19th February.
OB288 was fully formed, consisting of 41 ships and headed for the North Channel and beyond that the North Atlantic ocean.
The Sirikishna, managed by Christian Salvesen, carried a crew of 38, the convoy Commodore, Rear Admiral Plowden, DSO, RN, and his 5 RN signalmen.
The escorts consisted of the destroyers Achates, Antelope and Georgetown, corvettes Heather and Picotee, and the armed trawler Ayrshire. They were to protect the convoy up to 15° west which at that stage of the war was the maximum distance that convoys were escorted, due to the lack of escort vessels.
The weather was cold and the seas were high, and this was now starting to make itself felt on the empty ships that were ploughing their way into the stormy North Atlantic, and most were struggling to keep up speed and position in the convoy.
The Empire Fusilier dropped out and returned to Oban with steering trouble, Empire Steelhead returned with engine trouble, and Kasonga put into Belfast for compass adjustment.
On the 21st, the convoy was ordered to steer course 270 after passing through 59° north, in order to avoid any U-boats which were believed to be lurking in the general area ahead of the convoy.
During the morning of the 22nd, they were located by a FW200 condor of 1/KG40, and during a bomb attack, damaged two ships, the Kingston Hill and the Keila. Keila returned under escort with a buckle amidships.
At 16.24 hrs on the 22nd, Commander-in-Chief, Western Approaches signalled “Most Immediate” that the convoy had been reported by a U-boat, and issued a change of course. This course change was not executed, and Western Approaches only learnt of this error at 09.00 hrs the next day, when a hudson of Coastal Command located the convoy south-west of the position given on the Western Approaches plotting map at Liverpool.
The escorts now left the convoy, and OB288 steamed on a north-westerly course toward its designated dispersal point.
Just as it reached it, the U-boats closed in for the attack.
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