Beaverford

Beaverford

Ship data flag  United Kingdom (1928-40) Ship type Cargo ship Owner Canadian Pacific Steamships (1928-40) Shipyard Barclay, Curle and Company , Glasgow Build number 617 Launch October 27, 1927 Commissioning January 21, 1928 Whereabouts Sunk on November 5, 1940

Ship dimensions and crew length 153 m ( Lüa ) width 19 m measurement 10,042 GRT   crew 77

Machine system Top speed 15 kn (28 km / h) propeller 1

The Beaverford was a British cargo ship that was mainly used on the North Atlantic convoy route during World War II .

history

On November 5, 1940, the convoy HX 84 , to which the Beaverford belonged, was attacked by the German heavy cruiser Admiral Scheer . The commander of the British auxiliary cruiser Jervis Bay , the only protection of the convoy, ordered the ships to disperse and tried to create an artificial smoke screen. The Beaverford was now on the opposite course to the German capital ship and moved away. With the Jervis Bay , the commander set a course for the Admiral Scheer to draw fire on his ship. To do this, he attacked the much larger ship with his guns. The Admiral Scheer then attacked the auxiliary cruiser first and sank it after only 22 minutes ( location ), losing 168 sailors of the 254-strong crew. The others were later rescued by the Swedish freighter Stureholm . Then the Admiral Scheer pursued the now widely scattered cargo ships and sank the Maiden (91 dead), the Trewellard (16 dead), the Fresno City (1 dead) and the Kenbane Head (23 dead). The San Demetrio and the Andalusian were damaged. Now the commander of the Beaverford Hugh Pettigrew, also deputy convoy commodore , had his ship turned around and headed for the Admiral Scheer , although the freighter had only two smaller guns as armament. The Admiral Scheer now concentrated her fire on the Beaverford . This was able to avoid the gunfire again and again. The fight continued into the night. The Admiral Scheer tried to find her opponent with flares and lighting rockets . Instead of trying to escape in the dark and smoke, the Beaverford continued the fight. The Admiral Scheer fired 83 rounds of her Sk 28 cm L / 52 guns and 71 rounds of her 15 cm SK C / 28 L / 55 guns over a period of five hours . Twelve 28 cm shells and 16 15 cm shells hit the Beaverford . When the latter slowed down because the steam turbines were damaged, Admiral Scheer fired a torpedo . It hit the prow of the Beaverford . The Beaverford exploded due to an explosion of ammunition in its bow . ( Location ) The entire crew of 77 Beaverford sailors were killed.

The use of the crew of the Beaverford never received much attention. Although there was even a requirement to posthumously award the crew the Order of George Cross . On the other hand, there was a great deal of attention paid to the crews of Jervis Bay and the San Demetrio .

Convoys

During the Second World War she took part in the following convoy trains.

Convoy	time	Port of departure	Destination port
HX 1	September 1939	Halifax ( location )	Liverpool ( location )
OA 23	October 1939	Southend ( location )	various Canadian ports
HXF 8	November 1939	Halifax	Dover ( location )
OA 46	December 1939	Southend	various Canadian ports
HXF 13	December 1939	Halifax	Liverpool
OA 71	January 1940	Southend	various Canadian ports
HX 18	February 1940	Halifax	Liverpool
OA 101	March 1940	Southend	various Canadian ports
HX 29	March 1940	Halifax	Liverpool
OA 135	April 1940	Southend	various Canadian ports
HX 43	May 1940	Halifax	Liverpool
OA 165	June 1940	Southend	various Canadian ports
HX 55	July 1940	Halifax	Liverpool
MT 115	July 1940	Methil ( location )	Tyne
FS 227	July 1940	Tyne	Southend
FN 243	August 1940	Southend	Methil
OA 196	August 1940	Methil	various Canadian ports
HX 70	September 1940	Halifax	Liverpool
OB 223	October 1940	Liverpool	various Canadian ports
HX 84	November 1940	Halifax	Liverpool

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Roger Litwiller, "The Sacrifice of SS Beaver Ford -The Heroic Saga of the Canadian Pacific Railway's Ship with Teeth", November 4, 2018
2. ↑ Jürgen Rohwer , Gerhard Hümmelchen : Chronicle of the Sea War 1939–1945, October 1940 , accessed on February 10, 2019.
3. ^ Peter Pigott: Sailing Seven Seas: A History of the Canadian Pacific Line Dundurn Press 2010, p. 143.
4. ^ Bernard Edwards: Convoy Will Scatter: The Full Story of Jervis Bay and Convoy HX84 Pen and Sword Maritime, Barnsley 2013, pp. 11-12.
5. ^ Arnold Hague Convoy Database , accessed February 10, 2019.

 Map with all coordinates: OSM | WikiMap