Abosso (ship, 1912)
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The Abosso (I) was a 1912 passenger and cargo steamer of the British shipping company Elder Dempster & Company . It was sunk by a German submarine during World War I in 1917 , killing 65 civilian passengers and crew members.
The ship
The 7,782 GRT steamship Abosso was built at the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast and was launched on August 15, 1912 with hull number 430. The ship was completed on December 19, 1912. The hull was 129.7 meters long, 17.5 meters wide and had a maximum draft of 9.6 meters.
Triple expansion steam engines with an output of 516 nominal horsepower propelled the ship and accelerated it to a maximum speed of 14 knots . The Abosso had two screws , a chimney and two masts . It was equipped with wireless radio and refrigeration equipment to transport fresh food. The ship was built for the Elder Dempster & Company Limited (often abbreviated Elder Dempster Lines ) founded in 1852 , which specializes in passenger and freight traffic to the United States and Canada , but also to more distant destinations such as Africa , the Caribbean and the Canary Islands Islands and India . The Abosso was used for the South Africa service.
The Abosso had two sister ships , the 7781 GRT Appam (1913) and the 7832 GRT Apapa (1915). The Appam was charged with 319 people on board on January 15, 1916 at the North Atlantic by the German auxiliary cruiser Gull applied . The capture made international headlines. The Apapa was also sunk by a German submarine just a few months after the Abosso . In 1935, Elder Dempster Lines put a second ship named Abosso into service, the 11,330 GRT motor ship Abosso . This ship suffered the same fate as its predecessor, as it was also sunk by a German submarine during World War II .
Downfall
On the night of April 24th to 25th 1917, the Abosso was under the command of Captain James Thomas Toft on the Irish south coast. She came from Nigeria with passengers, mail and cargo and was on her way to Liverpool . 180 nautical miles west of the Fastnet rock , the steamer was sighted by the German submarine SM U 43 , which was under the command of Lieutenant Hellmuth Jürst on patrol. Jürst fired a torpedo at the ship.
The Abosso went down with the stern first in a very short time . Passengers and crew rushed to the lifeboats . The disembarkation began while the ship was still sailing. As a result, two boats overturned when touching the water. Another boat, in which about 60 people were sitting, could not be freed from its davits and threw its occupants into the water when the Abosso suddenly tilted heavily. The darkness made the evacuation even more difficult. As the list widened , Captain Toft and a few others climbed into the ship's rigging. When the Abosso went down, they were caught in the suction , but reached the surface again and were pulled onto a raft . The radio operator was able to make an emergency call in the short time , which was received by a British patrol boat . This ship arrived 45 minutes later and picked up the survivors.
A total of 65 passengers and crew members were killed in the sinking. The only two Americans on board survived. Captain Toft then commanded the Apapa and survived the sinking seven months later. The wreck the Abosso located in position 57 ° 10 ' N , 14 ° 58' W .