Completed for the MOWT as EMPIRE NIGEL in 1943 the wartime standard (Type PR(B) was a product of Wm. Gray's yard at Hartlepool ( see details of her at teesbuiltships.co.uk)
Not long after her completion in September 1943 EMPIRE NIGEL found herself part of convoy JW54A which sailed from Loch Ewe on 15th November bound for Russia. She departed the Kola Inlet on December 22nd sailing with return convoy RA55A, bound for Loch Ewe where she arrived on January 1st 1944. Convoy RA55A was comprised of eleven British and ten American vessels, escorted by eleven destroyers.
At sea at the same time was the eastbound convoy JW57
On Christmas Eve the Germans sailed the battlecruiser SCHARNHORST and ten destroyers from Altenfjord in an attempt to seek out the merchant ships.
Admiral Frazer aboard the battleship HMS DUKE OF YORK departed Akureyri, Iceland, on December 24th accompanied by the cruiser HMS JAMAICA and four destroyers, sailing as distant cover for the convoys.
While attempting to locate the merchant ships SCHARNHORST was engaged by DUKE OF YORK and her consorts, and subsequently sank in what was to become known as the Battle of North Cape, on December 26th
EMPIRE NIGEL sailed for the Kola Inlet again in March 1944
Here the old warhorse is basking in the sunshine at the Commissioners buoys, North Shields, on 28th July 1962