Holdernith was a 643 GRT coaster vessel that was built in 1944 as Empire Dorrit by Scott and Son Ltd, Bowling, West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, UK, for the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT).

[3] She was placed under the management of William Robertson Ltd.[2] Little is recorded of her wartime service, although she was a member of Convoy BTC 8, which departed from Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire on 15 December 1944 and arrived at Southend, Essex three days later.

[4] She was also a member of Convoy TBC 58, which departed from Southend on 3 February 1945 and arrived at Milford Haven three days later.

[5] In 1945, Empire Dorrit was transferred to the French government and was renamed Lieutenant Lancelot,[1] after a National Front leader who had been arrested by the Gestapo in 1944 and later died in a German prisoner of war camp.

On 17 January 1957, Holdernith ran aground on the Whitton Sand in the Humber Estuary and sank.