In 1946, while laden with a cargo of munitions, she sank in the English Channel after colliding with the British or French steamer Lombardy.
[1] In 1967, an attempt to salvage her wreck inadvertently detonated some of her cargo; the resulting explosion was measured to be equivalent in force to a minor earthquake.
In 1944, the US War Shipping Administration bareboat chartered her to the Polish government-in-exile,[2] who renamed her after the city of Kielce in Małopolska.
[6] On 5 March 1946, Kielce was in the English Channel off Folkestone, carrying a cargo of munitions from Southampton to Bremerhaven, when she collided with the steamer Lombardy.
[7][8][9] There are claims that the explosion “brought panic to Folkestone’s town, and chaos to the beaches,” and a few sources alleged that it caused a “tidal wave.” In fact, two employees of the salvage company that were in a small boat located only about 400 yards (370 m) from the wreck witnessed only “a small ripple and some spray,” and it has been calculated that the resulting sea wave could not have been more than 2 feet (0.6 m) high.