Leasowe Castle
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The Leasowe Castle was a 1917 steamship of the British shipping company Union-Castle Line , which could not be used as a passenger ship in the First World War . Immediately after completion, it was used as a troop transport and sank on May 27, 1918 after being torpedoed by a German submarine, killing 101 people.
The ship
The 9737 GT / 5381 NRT large steamer was for the Greek shipping company National Steam Navigation Company to set keel and ran on 16 March 1915 as Vasilissa Sofia from the stack (hull number 806, registration number 140272). The 148.9 meter long and 17.7 meter wide ship was built at the Cammell, Laird & Company shipyard in Birkenhead, England. The National Steam Navigation Company was founded in 1908 and operated passenger services from Greek ports to New York . It was part of the Emiricos Bros. concern, which also owned other shipping companies.
The steamer was equipped with quadruple expansion steam engines that developed 1759 hp (6500 PSi ) and allowed a top speed of 17 knots. It had a chimney, two masts and two screws. The completed Vasilissa Sofia was launched by the shipyard in September 1915 and was not used by the shipping company. In the same year a British branch of the National Steam Navigation Company was founded with the Byrom Steamship Company and the Vasilissa Sofia was to be added to this new company.
In March 1917, however, the ship was requested by the British government as a troop transport as part of the Liner Acquisition Scheme (steam acquisition program) and placed under the management of the Union-Castle Line as Leasowe Castle . The namesake was Leasowe Castle near Moreton ( Merseyside ) from the late 16th century. The ship was never used by the shipping company. It was armed immediately after the takeover and used as a troop transport between Alexandria and Marseille .
On April 20, 1917, the Leasowe Castle was torpedoed 90 miles northwest of Gibraltar under the command of Captain HB Harvey by the German submarine U 35 (Kapitänleutnant Lothar von Arnauld de la Perière ). The ship lost its rudder , but was able to call at the port of Gibraltar. There were no fatalities.
Sinking
On the evening of May 27, 1918, there was a serious attack. 104 miles north-northwest of Alexandria, the Leasowe Castle was torpedoed at 11:25 p.m. at the coordinates 31 ° 30 ′ N , 27 ° 56 ′ E by the German submarine UB 51 (Kapitänleutnant Ernst Krafft ). She was with 2900 soldiers and their crew on a journey from Alexandria to Marseille. On board were members of The Warwickshire Yeomanry Regiment, the South Nottinghamshire Hussars, the Royal Buckinghamshire Yeomanry and the Royal Berkshire Regiment.
The torpedo hit about midships below the funnel. The engines came to a standstill almost instantly and the struck ship began to sink over the stern on a level keel . Soldiers who had been assigned berths on the lower decks had been asked to sleep on deck so that they could be at their boat stations as quickly as possible in an emergency. This paid off as the lifeboats could be launched quickly. Soldiers lowered themselves into the lowered boats on ropes, while others were manned on deck.
After all the lifeboats that were still available (some had been torn from their mountings and damaged by the torpedo explosion) were in the water, there were still around 800 to 1,000 men on the ship. Some boats came alongside and took on more men, others were taken over by the Japanese destroyer Katsura and the sloop Lily . Around 2 a.m. the Leasowe Castle sank stern first. At that time there were still about 150 people on the ship, mainly on the front deck.
92 soldiers and nine crew members were killed in the sinking, including the captain, Edward J. Holl, a recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross . None of the dead were recovered afterwards.