Avila Star

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Avila Star
Avila Star.jpg
Ship data
flag United KingdomUnited Kingdom (trade flag) United Kingdom
other ship names
  • Avila (1927-1929)
Ship type Passenger ship
Callsign GMTY
home port Liverpool
Shipping company Blue Star Line
Shipyard John Brown & Company , Clydebank
Build number 514
Launch September 22, 1926
takeover March 1927
Commissioning April 1, 1927
Whereabouts Sunk July 5, 1942
Ship dimensions and crew
length
167.7 m ( Lüa )
width 20.8 m
Draft Max. 12.9 m
measurement 14,443 GRT / 8,836 NRT
Machine system
machine 2 × Parsons high and low pressure steam turbine sets
Machine
performance
13,880 hp (10,209 kW)
Top
speed
16 kn (30 km / h)
propeller 2
Transport capacities
Permitted number of passengers First class: 162
Others
Registration
numbers
149791

The Avila Star (I) was a 1927 commissioned passenger ship of the British shipping company Blue Star Line , which was built for transatlantic traffic and brought passengers and cargo from Great Britain to South America . She was one of the largest passenger ships the Blue Star Line has ever put into service. On July 5, 1942, the ship, which was unarmed and not in a convoy , was torpedoed and sunk east of the Azores by the German submarine U 201 . 84 passengers and crew members were killed. The Avila Star was the largest of the 24 ships sunk by U 201 .

The ship

Deck plans of the Avila and Avelona .

The Avila Star was built in 1927 at the John Brown & Company shipyard in Clydebank near Glasgow . She was the fourth of a quintet of sister ships commissioned by the British shipping company Blue Star Line, founded in 1911. Her sister ships were the Almeda Star (1926) with 14,935 GRT, the Andalucia Star (1927) with 14,934 GRT, the Arandora Star (1927) with 14,694 GRT and the Avelona Star (1927) with 13,376 GRT. The group of sister ships was largely identical and was generally called The Luxury Five (in German: "The luxurious five").

It was driven by two sets of Parsons steam turbines, which operated via simple gear sets on twin screws with 120 revolutions per minute. The steam required was generated in three double and two single-end steam boilers . The holds with six hatches and a capacity of 12,000 m³ were completely insulated for the transport of refrigerated cargo and were loaded and unloaded with a total of 27 cargo booms. In addition to the dining room and the smoking room, the Avila Star had two promenade decks, a music salon and a veranda café. All common rooms had a height of 3.50 meters.

The ship was launched on September 22, 1926 under the name Avila , was completed on March 25, 1927 and left on April 1, 1927 on its maiden voyage to Madeira , Rio de Janeiro , Santos , Montevideo and Buenos Aires . It was used for crossings to various South American countries such as Argentina and Brazil and could carry 162 first-class passengers. It was not until May 1929 that the steamer was renamed Avila Star . In that year, all five sister ships were rebuilt and extended, and the addition "Star" was added to the previous name for all of them. As a result of the conversion work, the volume of the ship increased from originally 12,872 GRT to 14,443 GRT. In 1935 further changes were made at the Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company shipyard in the English city of Jarrow ( Tyne and Wear ), including redesigning the bow of the steamer according to the Maierform design .

Sinking

Submarine attack

On Friday, June 12, 1942, the Avila Star ran in Buenos Aires under the command of the 61-year-old Captain John Fisher for another crossing to Great Britain with stops in Rio de Janeiro and Freetown ( Sierra Leone ). On board were 166 crew members and 30 passengers, including ten women. The cargo included 5,659 tons of frozen meat. During the trip, rescue exercises with passengers and crew members took place daily. In addition, the travelers were supplied with red electrical signal lights that could be attached to clothing and that should make it easier to locate them in the water. All lifeboats were equipped with water, food, clothing, medicines and brandy .

On the evening of July 5, the ship was about 90 nautical miles east of the Azores island of São Miguel . She was unarmed and drove without an escort. The weather was calm and there was a slight haze over the water . Due to the known submarine danger in those waters, various safety measures were taken: The Avila Star was completely darkened, drove in a constant zigzag course and the passengers were instructed to always be dressed and wear life jackets .

U 201 , a German type VII C submarine under the command of Kapitänleutnant Adalbert Schnee , discovered the passenger ship steaming eastwards, chased it for several hours and shot down two G7 torpedoes at 9:05 p.m. without warning . The bullets struck on the starboard side in the engine room one, making the Avila Star immediately serious flip side got to starboard. The lights flickered briefly and then went out. The order to leave the ship was immediately given.

Passengers and crew members came on deck very quickly and boarded the boats. The evacuation was orderly and without panic, but there were also incidents. The rope at the stern of lifeboat No. 5 gave way and left the boat hanging vertically in the air, throwing its occupants into the sea. During the evacuation operation, U 201 torpedoed the already sinking Avila Star again. The detonation occurred directly under the fully occupied lifeboat No. 7, which was just launched into the water, which blew up and threw its passengers out. Oil leaked from the damaged hull and stuck the clothes of the people floating in the water. At 10.10 p.m., one hour and five minutes after the first attack, the Avila Star went down, bow first, at position 38.04N 22.46W. She was already underwater when her cauldrons exploded . Captain Fisher was one of the last people to leave the ship. He took an oar and jumped overboard. After several hours in the cold water, however, the 66-year-old lost his strength and he drowned.

In the lifeboats

Seven lifeboats had been able to be lowered before the Avila Star sank, but two of them had crashed and were unusable. No. 8, the only one with an engine, was damaged and had to be exhausted. The boats stayed together and waited to be rescued. There were several injured and many of the survivors were smeared with oil and exhausted. When there was no rescue in sight even after three days, the first officer of the Avila Star , Michael BM Tallack, decided on the evening of July 8th to leave the other boats with motorboat no.8 and head for the Portuguese coast about 600 miles away, to get help. Just an hour after leaving, he was spotted by the Portuguese destroyer Lima , under the command of Captain Rodriguez, en route from Lisbon to Ponta Delgada in the Azores. The Lima picked up the survivors from No. 8 and shortly afterwards also found lifeboats No. 1 and 4.

The other two boats, No. 2 and 6, were not found even after a 24-hour search. They headed for the Portuguese coast together, but lost contact on July 11th. The water reserves were rationed and unused clothing was burned to attract attention through the smoke. No. 2, commanded by Second Officer John L. Anson, was only found on July 25, 20 days after the sinking of the Avila Star , by the Portuguese Aviso Pedro Nunes . Of the initial 39 inmates, ten had died in the meantime. Two others died in a Lisbon hospital the following day. Lifeboat No. 6 was never found.

Aftermath

Of the 196 people on board the Avila Star , a total of 84 were killed, 17 passengers and 67 crew members. Most of the fatalities were mourned by the lifeboat being blown up, the rest died later during the long waiting time in the boats. The Chief Officer, Eric R. Pearce, the First Officer Michael Tallack, and the Second Officer John Anson were awarded the Order of the British Empire . Pearce was also awarded the Lloyd's War Medal for Bravery at Sea . Boat mate John Andrew Gray received the British Empire Medal .

The passenger Maria Elizabeth ("Mary") Ferguson (1923-2006), the 19-year-old daughter of a British plantation owner living in Argentina, received special recognition. She was on the Avila Star on her way to Great Britain to volunteer as a war worker. She was sitting in lifeboat No. 7 and was thrown five meters into the air when the third torpedo from U 201 detonated under the boat. She sustained a head injury, swallowed a lot of diesel oil, and developed 48 saltwater bumps. Despite her condition, she attended to injured passengers and maintained morale during the 20 days on boat # 2. Therefore Ferguson was honored with the British Empire Medal and the Lloyd's War Medal for Bravery at Sea.

Web links

See also

Footnotes

  1. a b c Excerpt 150, Archives for Shipbuilding and Shipping: Building description of the Avila and Avelona . In: Werft * Reederei * Hafen 1927, No. 24, pages 566f