Laurentic (ship, 1927)
 The Laurentic (picture by Walter Thomas)
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The Laurentic (II) was a 1927 transatlantic steamer of the British shipping company White Star Line , which was used for passenger and mail traffic from Liverpool to Canada and the USA. The ship was used as a troop transport during World War II until it was sunk by a German submarine on November 4, 1940 on the Northern Irish coast.
The ship
The 18,724 GRT steamship Laurentic was built for the White Star Line at the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and was launched on June 16, 1927. The ship was 176.23 meters long and 22.89 meters wide and had two funnels, two masts and three propellers . 594 passengers could be taken on board in cabin class, 406 in tourist class and 500 in third class.
On November 1, 1927, the ship was completed and on November 12, 1927 it ran from Liverpool on its maiden voyage to New York . From April 27, 1928 she was used on the route Liverpool - Quebec - Montreal . On October 3, 1932, the Laurentic collided in Belle-Isle-Strasse with the steamship Lurigethan of the British shipping company HE Moss & Co., whereby both ships were damaged, but no one was harmed.
After the merger of the White Star Line with the Cunard Line in 1934 to form Cunard-White Star Ltd. put the Laurentic on September 14, 1934 on her last voyage from Liverpool to Québec and Montreal. After that it was mainly used for cruises . On August 18, 1935, in fog in the Irish Sea , she collided with the Napier Star of the Blue Star Line , killing six crew members. Then it was launched in December 1935 in Southampton . In 1936 the Laurentic made a troop voyage to Palestine and was re-launched in 1938, this time in Falmouth .
On August 26, 1939, the ship was requested by the British Admiralty and converted into an armed auxiliary cruiser by October 16 . From then on she drove with the ship identification F51.
Sinking
On November 3, 1940 at 21.40 pm, the German torpedoed submarine U 99 , which is under the command of Lieutenant Otto Kretschmer on its sixth war patrol was located about 240 miles southwest of Bloody Foreland on the coast of Donegal (Ireland) to uneskortierten British Steamer Casanares (5,376 t). Nine crew members were killed. Before the Casanares sank, she made emergency calls that were received by the Laurentic and the auxiliary cruiser Patroclus (11,314 t).
The Laurentic (captain: Eric Paul Vivian) and the Patroclus (captain: Lt. Cdr. Gerald Charles Wynter) arrived on site shortly afterwards and were immediately attacked by U 99 . At 10:50 p.m. Kretschmer shot a torpedo from a distance of 1,500 meters, which hit the engine room of the Laurentic . After a second torpedo had not detonated at 11:28 p.m., a third was shot down at 11:37 p.m. from a distance of 250 meters, which enlarged the impact hole of the first hit. U 99 has now been sighted by the crew of the Laurentic and taken under cannon fire.
The Patroclus did not take part in the fight against the submarine, but took in survivors from the Casanares . Shortly after midnight on November 4, the Patroclus received four torpedo hits and was also fired at with grenades. In the meantime the Casanares had sunk. The Laurentic , which was still buoyant, was hit by a catch shot at 4:53 a.m. and sank, killing two officers and 47 soldiers. Half an hour later the Patroclus was also sunk, killing its captain, six officers and 49 soldiers. The survivors of the Laurentic were picked up by the destroyer Hesperus (Lt. Cdr. Donald George Frederick Wyville MacIntyre).