Caledonia (ship, 1925)
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The Caledonia (IV) was a 1925 passenger ship of the British shipping company Anchor Line , which was used as a passenger and mail steamer on the North Atlantic route from Great Britain to the USA . From September 1939 she served under the designation HMS Scotstoun as an armed auxiliary cruiser (Armed Merchant Cruiser) until she was sunk by a German submarine on June 13, 1940 west of the Outer Hebrides . It is one of the 15 largest ships sunk by German submarines during World War II .
The ship
The 17,046 GRT steam turbine ship Caledonia was laid down in February 1920 at the Alexander Stephen and Sons shipyard in Glasgow , but was not launched until April 22, 1925. This Caledonia was the successor to the ship of the same name that was commissioned in 1905 and was sunk by a German submarine during World War I. The Caledonia had a sister ship , the Transylvania (II) (16,923 GRT) , which was completed in the same year . The 168.6 meter long and 21.5 meter wide Caledonia had two masts , three chimneys and was powered by steam turbines that acted on two propellers and enabled a cruising speed of 16 knots. The ship could carry 205 passengers of the first class, 403 passengers of the second class and 796 passengers of the third class.
On October 3, 1925, the Caledonia ran out on her maiden voyage on the Glasgow - Moville - New York route . In October 1930, the second class was replaced by the tourist class. In March 1936 the cabin, tourist and third class were introduced. In 1938 a major modernization took place, as part of which the ship received new propellers. The top speed increased to 17 knots. The third class accommodations were also renewed. In June 1939, the Caledonia set off for her last transatlantic crossing from Glasgow via Moville to Boston and New York and back to Glasgow.
In World War II
On August 30, 1939, the passenger ship was requested by the Admiralty for military service and converted into an armed auxiliary cruiser . The Caledonia got the new name Scotstoun and, like her sister ship, was assigned to the 10th Cruiser Squadron.
On June 13, 1940, the Scotstoun was under the command of Captain Sydney Keith Smyth, OBE , 80 nautical miles west of the Outer Hebrides Island of Barra when she was at 07.16 a.m. at position 57.00N 09.57W in the stern of a G7a- Torpedo of the German submarine U 25 (Kapitänleutnant Heinz Beduhn) was hit. Three minutes later, U 25s fired a catch but it missed. A second catch shot struck behind the third chimney and caused the ship to sink over the stern.
Six men were killed in the sinking. The 344 survivors were picked up by the destroyer HMS Highlander (Commander William A. Dallmeyer) and brought to Scotland. The Scotstoun was the largest ship that U 25 sank in World War II.