Second World War
On 18 December 1940, Adviser left Glasgow and joined Convoy WS 5A, which was outward bound from Liverpool. The convoy included a dozen troopships and two of Adviser's sister ships: Barrister and Settler. By 24 December, its escort included the heavy cruisers HMS Berwick (65) and HMS Shropshire; light cruisers HMS Bonaventure (31) and HMS Dunedin; and aircraft carriers HMS Argus (I49) and HMS Furious (47).[3] At dawn on 25 December, the GERMAN CRUISER Admiral Hipper attacked the convoy in the Atlantic, 700 nmi west of Finisterre. Hipper attacked HMS Berwick; the merchant ships were ordered to disperse; and Bonaventure engaged Hipper. The German cruiser damaged Berwick and one of the troopships, Empire Trooper, but was forced to break off the attack. Adviser and her sister ships were undamaged.[4]
Adviser supported the Allied invasion of Madagascar in 1942. She left Mombasa in Kenya on 3 September, and was in Majunga (Mahajanga) on the northwest coast of Madagascar from 10 to 28 September. From 1 to 31 October, when Vichy French forces were nearing defeat, she was in Tamatave (Toamasina) on the east coast.[5]
In Tamatave, Adviser loaded a cargo of graphite. On 6 November 1942 she reached Durban in South Africa, and on 14 November resumed her voyage, bound for Trinidad, New York, and the UK. At noon that day, GS U-178 sighted her and followed her. Aircraft attacked the U-boat at 14:23 hrs, but failed to damage it, and it resumed its pursuit of Adviser. At 23:23 hrs that night, U-178 fired two torpedoes, both of which missed. At 01:45 hrs on 15 November, the U-boat fired another two torpedoes, both of which hit Adviser, crippling her at position -32.05°N, 33.86667°W, about 200 nmi southeast of Durban. U-178 saw her crew abandon ship, but then heard depth charges in the distance, and therefore had to leave the area without being able to wait to see whether the ship had sunk. In fact Adviser, despite being badly damaged, remained afloat, so her Master, Captain John Thurston Ling, and his crew, re-boarded her latre that morning. Two tugs towed her back to Durban, where she arrived on 19 November 1942. She was repaired there, and returned to service in August 1943.[6]
