The MV Prins Harald was a cargo ship with a gross register tonnage (GRT) of 7,244, constructed in 1941 by William Doxford & Sons Ltd in Sunderland, County Durham, United Kingdom. She measured 428 feet 8 inches (130.66 meters) in length, with a beam of 56 feet 3 inches (17.15 meters), and a depth of 35 feet 2 inches (10.72 meters). Her draught was 27 feet 4.75 inches (8.35 meters). Powered by a two-stroke, single-cycle, single-action diesel engine built by the same company, she featured three cylinders of approximately 23.75 inches in diameter and a stroke of 36 inches, generating 516 nominal horsepower (NHP) and driving a screw propeller. Launched on 23 September 1941 and completed by January 1942, she was initially named Empire Field and registered under the United Kingdom with Official Number 169008 and Code Letters BCVL. She was managed by Haldin & Phillips Ltd and operated out of Sunderland. Her early service involved transatlantic journeys, including participation in convoys from the UK to the United States, South Africa, India, and Ceylon, carrying general cargo, tea, mails, and war materials. In October 1942, the ship was transferred to the Norwegian Government and renamed Prins Harald, with her port of registry shifting to Oslo and Code Letters LLPC. Under the management of Nortraship, she continued her wartime service, transporting war materials for Operation Torch and participating in convoys across the Mediterranean and North Africa. Tragically, on 20 November 1942, Prins Harald was torpedoed and sunk by the German U-boat U-263 in the Atlantic Ocean, approximately 240 nautical miles west of Gibraltar. The attack resulted in the loss of three crew members—two sailors and one DEMS gunner—out of a crew of 38. The ship exploded and sank within about half an hour, but 55 survivors, including her ship's dog, were rescued. The incident is memorialized at the Plymouth Naval Memorial in the UK and the Minnehallen in Stavern, Norway, highlighting her brief but significant wartime service.

This description has been generated using GPT-4.1-NANO based on the Vessel's wikidata information and then modified by ShipIndex.org staff.