SS Gairsoppa

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Name: SS Gairsoppa
Operator: British-India Steam Navigation Company
Ordered: by MOWT as War Roebuck SS taken over by BISN
Builder: Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne
Launched: 1919
Renamed: during construction
Fate: Sunk, February 17, 1941
General characteristics
Class and type: Steam merchant ship
Tonnage: 5237 grt
Length: 121 feet (37 m)
Beam: 15 feet (4.6 m)
Height: 9 feet (2.7 m)
Draught: 7 feet (2.1 m)
Propulsion: triple expansion engine, coal
Speed: 10 knots

The SS Gairsoppa was a British steam merchant ship that saw service during the Second World War. She sailed with several convoys, before joining Convoy SL 64. Whilst heading to Galway, Ireland to refuel, she was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat.

Career

Ordered by the Ministry of War Transport as War Roebuck SS from Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, she was taken over during construction by the British-India Steam Navigation Company, and completed as SS Gairsoppa.[1]

Sinking

Attached to convoy SL-64 under master Gerald Hyland, she was returning from India to Britain in 1941 with a cargo of silver ingots, pig iron and tea.[2][3] Joining the 8 knot convoy in Freetown, Sierra Leone,[4] while in a heavy storm and running low on coal off the coast of neutral Republic of Ireland, it split off from the convoy and set course for Galway harbour.

Circled by a large four engine aircraft at 08:00 on 16th February, at 22.30 she was spotted by U-101, under the command of Ernst Mengersen. Torpedoed on the starboard side in No. 2 hold, she sank within 20 minutes (Note: German logbooks kept in German time state she sank at 00.08 hours on February 17, 1941).[4] Her last reported position was 50°00′N 14°0′W / 50°N 14°W / 50; -14, 300 miles (480 km) southwest of Galway Bay.[2] The wreck lies at least 6,500 feet (2,000 m) below the surface.

It was thought that three lifeboats launched, but only that in charge of the second officer R.H. Ayres with four Europeans and two Lascars on board made it away; the rest of the crew was lost. Ayres and his boat reached the Cornish coast two weeks later at Caerthillian Cove. Two died trying to get ashore, they are buried at St. Wynwallow, Church Cove, Landewednack.[4] Ayres was made an MBE for his attempts to rescue his fellow sailors, and lived until 1992.[2]

Memorial

Eleven crew members are commemorated on Tower Hill, Panel 51. Seventy Lascars are commemorated on the Chittagong War Memorial.[2]

Recovery

In 1989, the British government invited tenders to salvage the cargo and received just one, from Deepwater Recovery and Exploration Ltd.[5]

After a competitive tender, in January 2010 the British Government choose US company Odyssey Marine Exploration, who have a two year contract period to find and salvage the silver.[3]

References

External links