Empire Conveyor was a 5,911 GRT shelter deck cargo ship that was built in 1917 as Farnworth by Richardson, Duck and Company,[1] Thornaby-on-Tees, England.

She tried to return to Germany but was captured by the Royal Navy, passed to the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT) and renamed Empire Conveyor.

[3] The boilers fed a 440 NHP triple expansion steam engine that was built by Blair & Co Ltd of Stockton-on-Tees.

[7] In 1934, Illinois was sold to Kulukundis Shipping Co, Piraeus, Greece and renamed Mount Pentelikon.

[10] On 21 October she was captured south-east of Iceland (65°30′N 22°05′W / 65.500°N 22.083°W / 65.500; -22.083) by HMS Sheffield, escorted into Kirkwall and then taken to Leith.

[5] During the voyage into Kirkwall, three of her crew attempted to escape by lifeboat but were recaptured and taken to Methil, Scotland.

She was placed under the management of H Hogarth & Sons Ltd. On 20 June 1940, Empire Conveyor was torpedoed by U-122 50 nautical miles (93 km) south west of Barra Head, Scotland at 56°16′N 8°10′W / 56.267°N 8.167°W / 56.267; -8.167.

Her radio aerials were damaged in the attack and Empire Conveyor was unable to call for assistance.

The crew took to the lifeboats and liferafts but one of them was swamped at launch, killing the captain, Finlay Macintyre,[12] the second engineer and the cook.