Qualla: SS Empire Explorer https://qualla.com/ss-empire-explorer en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:13 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/d/d/h/d/ss-empire-explorer-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: SS Empire Explorer https://qualla.com/ss-empire-explorer SS Empire Explorer: Introduction https://qualla.com/ss-empire-explorer/ Photo credit Demis map server, Public domain. The ship that would die twice began her life as the Inanda, sliding down the ways at Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson's yard in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1925. She was a workhorse, not a showpiece -- a cargo liner built for the Charente Steamship Company, managed by T & J Harrison Ltd out of Liverpool, powered by a quadruple expansion steam engine that drove a single screw propeller. For fourteen years she hauled general cargo, rum, and sugar through the Caribbean, calling at ports from Antigua to Demerara to Galveston. Her crew knew these waters the way taxi drivers know their cities, by the feel of routine and repetition. Then the war came, and routine became something that could kill you.

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]]> Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/d/h/d/ss-empire-explorer-wp/ddhd-ss-empire-explorer-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full SS Empire Explorer: Caribbean Crossings in a Dangerous Time https://qualla.com/ss-empire-explorer/ Photo credit Demis map server, Public domain. When war broke out in September 1939, Inanda joined Convoy OA 7 out of Southend and sailed for the Caribbean. What had once been a commercial milk run became a gauntlet. The convoys that carried sugar, rum, and raw materials from the West Indies to Britain were the arteries of a ...

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]]> Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/d/h/d/ss-empire-explorer-wp/ddhd-ss-empire-explorer-caribbean-crossings-in-a-dangerous-time.mp3 0:06 2 full SS Empire Explorer: Sunk in the London Docks https://qualla.com/ss-empire-explorer/ Photo credit Demis map server, Public domain. In August 1940, Inanda reached London after a transatlantic convoy. The Royal Navy hired her for use as an ocean boarding vessel -- one of the armed merchant ships tasked with intercepting and inspecting neutral shipping for contraband. She never got the chance. On September 7, 1...

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]]> Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/d/h/d/ss-empire-explorer-wp/ddhd-ss-empire-explorer-sunk-in-the-london-docks.mp3 0:06 3 full SS Empire Explorer: The Last Voyage https://qualla.com/ss-empire-explorer/ Photo credit Demis map server, Public domain. Empire Explorer returned to the Caribbean routes she knew as Inanda. In early 1942 she sailed from Southend with Convoy FN 632, loaded general cargo on the Tyne, and made her way to Saint Kitts by mid-March. She spent five weeks working through the West Indies, reached the Cape V...

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]]> Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/d/h/d/ss-empire-explorer-wp/ddhd-ss-empire-explorer-the-last-voyage.mp3 0:06 4 full SS Empire Explorer: Seventy-Eight Souls https://qualla.com/ss-empire-explorer/ Photo credit Demis map server, Public domain. In the early hours of July 9, at coordinates 11 degrees 40 minutes north, 60 degrees 55 minutes west -- Caribbean waters between Trinidad and Grenada -- U-575 found the Empire Explorer. The German submarine, under the command of Gunther Heydemann, torpedoed and shelled the cargo ...

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]]> Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/d/h/d/ss-empire-explorer-wp/ddhd-ss-empire-explorer-seventy-eight-souls.mp3 0:06 5 full