SS Burgondier was a 5,297-ton cargo steamship built to a First World War standard design by Caird & Company at Greenock on the Firth of Clyde.

[1] The boilers fed a Caird & Company three-cylinder triple expansion steam engine[1] rated at 517 NHP that drove a single screw.

[1] Caird & Co launched the ship as War Burman but completed her in April 1919 as Burgondier for Lloyd Royal Belge (GB) Ltd, which registered her in London.

Brockley Hill left Montreal, Quebec, Canada as a member of Convoy HX 133 on 12 June 1941 with a cargo of grain for London.

[5] Another British cargo steamship in the convoy, James Nourse Ltd's Saugor, rescued all hands and landed them at Loch Ewe in Scotland.