Atlantic Conveyor (ship, 1970)
 The Atlantic Conveyor in the Falklands
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
The Atlantic Conveyor was a British freighter that was used in the Falklands War . The ship was sunk by an Exocet missile.
history
The ship was a ConRo freighter of the Cunard Line . It counted with five other ships in the ACL G2 series , which were employed by the shipping consortium Atlantic Container Lines in the transatlantic service.
Together with its sister ship, the Atlantic Causeway , it was requisitioned by the British Ministry of Defense at the beginning of the Falklands War and used to transport the British Task Force to the Falkland Islands . The ship was not armed or received any passive protection systems .
On April 25, 1982, the ship left England for Ascension with six Westland Wessex helicopters for the Royal Navy and five Chinook helicopters for the Royal Air Force . On Ascension, the ship loaded four more Royal Air Force Harrier VTOLs and set off for the South Atlantic .
On May 25, 1982, the ship was hit by an Exocet missile fired by an Argentine Dassault Super Étendard . The rocket struck about 1.80 meters above the waterline. Immediately a fire broke out, which hit the whole ship. It is still unclear whether the rocket ultimately exploded or whether its fuel started the fire. However, the ship burned out completely and the Navy decided to sink it.
All the Harriers had already been unloaded, but the helicopters, except for a Chinook and a Wessex, which were in the air, were destroyed in the fire. The loss of the helicopters forced the British troops to march on foot to the capital Port Stanley during the occupation of the islands .
Twelve men died in the sinking of the Atlantic Conveyor , including the commander Ian North. Captain North was posthumously awarded the British Forces Distinguished Service Cross . The ship was the British Merchant Navy’s first loss to enemy fire since World War II .
As part of the Protection of Military Remains Act , the wreck is placed under special protection as a war grave and may only be explored by divers with a special permit.
literature
- Charles Drought: NP 1840 The Loss of the Atlantic Conveyor , Countyvise Ltd, Birkenhead 2003, ISBN 1-901231-41-0 .
Web links
- Atlantic Conveyor photos and data at tynebuiltships.co.uk , accessed April 25, 2019
- Technical data and history of the Atlantic Conveyor at wrecksite.eu , accessed on April 25, 2019
- Naval History Homepage: Battle Atlas of the Falklands was 1982 by Land, Sea and Air , accessed April 25, 2019
- The Atlantic Conveyor at thinkdefence.co.uk , accessed April 25, 2019
- Atlantic Conveyor - The third aircraft carrier at atlantic-conveyor.co.uk , accessed April 25, 2019
- Board of Inquiry: Loss of SS Atlantic Conveyor ( Report of the Commission of Inquiry to the loss of "Atlantic Conveyor" ) , called on April 25, 2019