The Apapa (II) was a 1927 passenger ship of the British shipping company Elder Dempster & Company , which carried passengers and cargo between Great Britain and West Africa . On November 15, 1940, the Apapa was bombed and sunk west of Ireland by German long-haul aircraft, killing 26 passengers and crew.
history
The 9,333 GRT motor ship Apapa was built at Harland & Wolff in Belfast , Northern Ireland . The ship, 137.5 meters long and 18.9 meters wide, had a chimney, two masts and two propellers and was powered by two diesel engines that developed 1,700 nominal horsepower and accelerated the ship to 14.5 knots. The Apapa could accommodate 243 first class passengers and 70 second class passengers.
She was the identical sister ship of the Accra (II) (9,337 GRT), which was also built by Harland & Wolff and put into service in 1926. The Apapa was launched on August 26, 1926, was completed on January 28, 1927 and shortly thereafter left for her maiden voyage from Liverpool to West Africa. The ship remained on this route throughout its entire service life. After the outbreak of war in 1939, the Apapa continued to operate in the civilian passenger traffic.
On October 27, 1940, the Apapa ran under the command of Captain Edward Vaughan Davies in Freetown ( Sierra Leone ) for another crossing to Liverpool. She had 255 passengers and crew on board and drove in convoy SL-53. On November 15, 1940, the Apapa was bombed 138 nautical miles northwest of Rockall and about 200 nautical miles west of Achill Head off the coast of County Mayo, Ireland, by German Focke-Wulf long-haul aircraft from Kampfgeschwader 40 and was at position ( 54 ° 20 ′ 24 ″ N , 16 ° 28 ′ 12 ″ W Coordinates: 54 ° 20 ′ 24 ″ N , 16 ° 28 ′ 12 ″ W )54.34 -16.47 countersunk. 21 crew members and five passengers died. The 229 survivors, including Captain Davies, were rescued by rescue ships (the numbers of dead and survivors vary from source to source).
