SS Avondale Park
Canadian merchant ship sunk in World War II
Avondale Park was a 2,872 GRT Canadian cargo ship which was built by Pictou Shipyard at Pictou, Nova Scotia in 1944. She was the last merchant ship to be sunk by Germany in the Second World War, on 7 May 1945, the day of the signing of the German surrender, and less than an hour before it went into effect. She was built as a merchant steamship constructed for Canada's Merchant Navy in 1944 as part of Canada's Park ship program.
Description
The ship was built by Foundation Maritime Limited's Pictou Shipyard in Pictou, Nova Scotia. She was launched in February 1944, and completed in May 1944.
The ship was 315 feet 5 inches (96.14 m) long, with a beam of 46 feet 5 inches (14.15 m) and a depth of 22 feet 9 inches (6.93 m). She had a GRT of 2,878 and a NRT of 1,653.
She was propelled by a triple expansion steam engine which had cylinders 20 inches (51 cm), 31 inches (79 cm) and 55 inches (140 cm) diameter by 39 inches (99 cm) stroke. The engine was built by Canada Iron Foundries, Three Rivers, Quebec.
History
Avondale Park was built for the Canadian Government and operated by the Park Steamship Co Ltd.
“SS Avondale Park” enters the record as canadian merchant ship sunk in World War II. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Avondale, Park and Canadian can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“SS Avondale Park” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Avondale, Park and Canadian provides the most credible route into that argument.
Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7393205. Authority coordinates are 56.083, -2.533. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1944 and 1945.
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This entry incorporates text from “SS Avondale Park” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.