She ended her career by being sunk as a blockship on the Normandy coast, supporting the allied landings there in 1944.

Empire Bunting was built as Eelbeck by the shipbuilding firm of Skinner & Eddy Corporation, Seattle, Washington, and launched on 28 June 1919 and completed in August 1919 for service with United States Shipping Board (USSB).

[4] Empire Bunting went on to sail in a considerable number of convoys across the North Atlantic, often carrying scrap steel or general cargo to Britain from Canada or the United States.

[5] Convoy SC 38 departed Sydney, Nova Scotia on 22 July 1941 and arrived at Liverpool on 8 August.

She was forced to return to St John's after she collided with the Greek merchant ship Dimitrios Chandris.

She put into St John's with an engine defect which was causing her to produce heavy smoke and run at reduced speed.

[10] She made her last wartime voyage as part of one of the Corn cob convoys, sailing from Poole to the Seine Bay in early June 1944.