Naples. 24th March 1955.

If you were on the ship, at the above time, I’ve no doubt you will remember the dear old Duchess being rammed by an American liner. We were tied up, stern to the jetty at the time, and I well remember being on the forecastle, with a number of my messmates, rigging the lights ready to flood light the ship that evening. We saw a liner being brought into harbour but it looked as though there was only one tug secured to the bow. The next time I looked up I saw that the tug had slipped her line and the ship was heading straight for us. I shouted a warning to the lads and we quickly cleared out of the way. A number of us grabbed the handrail around the superstructure and held on tight. The liner, the SS Excambion, struck the ship right on the point of the bow and then moved down the starboard side taking the guard rails with it as she went. It then carried on and removed the carly float and it’s mounting. The liner forced the Duchess back onto the jetty so hard that she finished up with an impression of the jetty on her stern.

The Duchess left Naples on the 30th March and reached Grand Harbour, Malta, on the 1st April and on the 5th April moved into number 2 dry dock where she stayed until the 2nd May.

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