City of Pretoria
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The City of Pretoria was a passenger ship operated by the British shipping company Ellerman Lines , which carried passengers and cargo from Great Britain to New York between 1938 and 1943 . On March 4, 1943, the unescorted ship was torpedoed and sunk in the North Atlantic northwest of the Azores by the German submarine U 172 . None of the 114 crew members, 24 artillerymen and seven passengers survived.
The ship
The City of Pretoria steamship was built on the River Mersey in 1937 at the Cammell, Laird & Company shipyard in the English city of Birkenhead . It was owned by Ellerman Lines, a British shipping company based in London . This was also the home port of the City of Pretoria . In December 1937 the ship was completed.
The 8049 TBRT ship was 151.4 meters long and 19 meters wide. It had a twin propeller, a chimney and two masts . The City of Pretoria crossed the North Atlantic as a passenger and cargo ship and operated between London and New York. The port of Liverpool was also called. With the outbreak of World War II , the City of Pretoria remained in passenger traffic, but from then on also transported ammunition and military personnel .
Sinking
On Saturday, February 27, 1943, the City of Pretoria departed New York for a crossing to Liverpool via Holyhead . The command was Captain Frank Deighton, a bearer of the Order of the British Empire . Due to the high speed of the ship, it was decided that the City of Pretoria should sail without escort . There were seven passengers, 24 artillerymen and 114 crew members on board , five of them in training . In addition, 7,032 tons of general cargo were on board. One of the passengers was James Allister Whyte, the former third officer of the City of Cairo passenger liner of the same shipping company, who had been sunk by a German submarine just a few months earlier. He had survived in a lifeboat for 51 days.
On Thursday morning, March 4, 1943, the City of Pretoria northwest of the Azores was sighted by U 172 . U 172 was a German submarine of the type IX C , which was under the command of Kapitänleutnant Carl Emmermann on its fourth patrol. U 172 shot down three torpedoes , two of which hit at 06.09. The City of Pretoria sank after a violent explosion . None of the 145 people on board survived.