Empire Heritage (ship)

Empire Heritage

1930 as Table Mountain in Norway. Sandefjord (front left)

Ship data flag  United Kingdom other ship names Table Mountain (1930–1943) Ship type Tanker Callsign BFRJ home port Cardiff Owner Ministry of War Transport Shipping company Chr. Salvesen & Co. Shipyard Armstrong, Whitworth & Company , Newcastle upon Tyne Build number 1059 Launch April 29, 1930 takeover July 1930 Whereabouts Sunk September 8, 1944

Ship dimensions and crew length 154.93 m ( Lüa ) width 22.10 m Draft Max. 10.88 m measurement 13640 BRT, 9196 NRT   crew 76

Machine system machine 2 × three-cylinder triple expansion machines Machine performance 1079 hp Top speed 10.0 kn (19 km / h) propeller 2 × fixed propellers

Transport capacities Load capacity 21021 dwt

Others Classifications Lloyd's Register

The Empire Heritage was a British tanker that was sunk in 1944.

history

The ship was built in 1930 at the Armstrong, Whitworth & Company shipyard in Newcastle as a whaling factory ship Table Mountain for the Kerguelen Sealing & Whaling Company in Cape Town. From 1936 Irvin & Johnson took over the management of the ship in Cape Town . In 1939, Tafelberg was converted into a pure tanker.

On January 28, 1941, Table Mountain was badly damaged by a mine while traveling from Barry via Greenock to the United States and was aground near Porthkerry . It broke in two. The Ministry of War Transport acquired the ship and had it restored and renamed Empire Heritage . It was in 1943 put back on track and ship management of Co. Christian Salvesen & asked.

On September 8, 1944, more than 100 ships in convoy HX-305 approached the Irish coast on the route from New York via Liverpool to Glasgow . The Empire Heritage had 16,000 tons of fuel and a large number of Sherman tanks on board. The German submarine U 482 fired two torpedoes at the Empire Heritage , which was immediately in position φ: 55.27 ° N; λ: 008.01 ° W decreased. The escort ship Pinto , which was supposed to rescue the survivors, was also sunk by the same submarine. The HMS Northern Wave took survivors of both ships on board and brought them to Derby. 113 people (crew, passengers and the captain of the Empire Heritage ) perished.

The ship is 15 miles northwest of Malin Head ( coordinates missing! Help with. Coordinates missing! Help with. ) At a depth of around 70 meters.

literature

• Roger Jordan: The World's Merchant Fleets 1939. The Particulars and Wartime Fates of 6,000 Ships , Naval Institute Press, Annapolis / Maryland 1999, ISBN 1-55750-959-X .
• John Peterson: Darkest before dawn. U-482 and the Sinking of Empire Heritage 1944 , The History Press, Brimscomb 2011, ISBN 978-0-7524-7266-9 ( limited preview in Google Book Search )

Web links

• Table Mountain at tynebuiltships.co.uk , accessed May 13, 2020

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Malin Head: The Giants' Cemetery (4) • Dive SSI. In: Dive SSI. August 1, 2019, accessed May 10, 2020 (UK English). 
2. ↑ https://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?10301
3. ↑ Table Mountain 1930. Retrieved May 10, 2020 . 
4. ↑ Phil Carradice: Snapshots of Welsh History: Without the Boring Bits . Accent Press Ltd, 2011, ISBN 978-1-908192-44-8 ( google.de [accessed May 10, 2020]).
5. ↑ U 482 - U-Boot-Archiv Wiki. Retrieved May 10, 2020 . 
6. ↑ Entry on Miramar Ship Index
7. ^ Daniel Farrell: SS Empire Heritage and the Sherman Tanks of Malin Head. September 8, 2019, accessed May 14, 2020 (UK English).