Aur tanker identity is KUROSHIO MARU built in 1938 at Harima japan
She started life as the Japanese KUROSHIO MARU built in 1938 at Harima.
She was 525ft long and displaced 10,383t. She had a steam turbine. She was known as a “Kawasaki-type oiler” and managed by Tyugai Kaikun KK. She of course was used by the Japanese during the War.
On 21JAN45 she was sunk in Takeo (now Kaohsiung) harbor by USN aircraft. In 1946 she was raised but her machinery and electrics were useless.
In 1947 she was bought by Communist Chinese interests and renamed YUNG HAO.
Then she was taken to Hong Kong to be refitted and put back in
service. That meant new electrical systems (British -GEC) and new radar (American – RCA). Her accommodation might have been damaged in the bombing and so was also
refurbished/rebuilt with new portholes (British – Rainhill) and floor tiles.
The British kept her in Hong Kong and did not return her to the Chinese.
There is a CIA report about this and later the British paid compensation to the Chinese – the Treaty confirming this is also on the Internet.
She was then taken into the British Royal Navy as a Royal Fleet Auxiliary (“RFA”) and renamed SURF PILOT but immediately laid up in Singapore.
She never saw active service with the RFA although she remained on their
lists until 1958.
She is reported as eventually being “scrapped” in Singapore in 1960.
She was scrapped alright, to the bottom of the sea
Credit to Scott Robinson, Dorian Ball, Brooks Jacobs and Vidar Skogli