Nerissa (ship, 1926)
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The Nerissa was a 1926 commissioned passenger ship of the British shipping company Bermuda & West Indies Steamship Company, which was used for the transport of passengers and cargo from New York to Bermuda , Trinidad and Demerara . In the Second World War , the ship also served as a troop transport . On April 30, 1941, the Nerissa , which had 290 people on board, was attacked southeast of the rocky island of Rockall in the North Atlantic by the German submarine U 552 without warning and sunk by three torpedoes . 207 passengers and crew members were killed. Most of the victims were members of the Canadian Merchant Navy , but also some civilians.
The ship
The passenger and cargo ship Nerissa was built in 1926 in the Glen Yard Dock of William Hamilton & Company Ltd. in Port Glasgow (Scotland) for the New York, Newfoundland & Halifax Steamship Company Ltd. built. This Canadian shipping company, which was mostly called the Red Cross Line because of its house flag , was founded in 1884 and was part of the Bowring Brothers and Company group based in St. John's , Newfoundland . The company's ships carried passengers and cargo from St. John's and Halifax to New York . She was the last ship that was built for this route.
The construction took place in a relatively short time. After the owners had signed the contracts on November 3, 1925, construction of the ship began that same month. The ship was launched on March 31, 1926, just in time for the start of the new season. After the test drives had been successfully completed on May 27, the Nerissa was able to start her maiden voyage to New York on June 5 of the same year .
As drift and pack ice increased on the planned route of the Nerissa on the east coast of Canada, especially in the winter months, the hull was reinforced and it was equipped with an icebreaker bow. The 106 meter long ship drove an average service speed of 14 knots, but could reach up to 17 knots (31.5 km / h). She was with steam engines from David Rowan & Co. Ltd. from Glasgow equipped. The four boilers were fired with oil. The ship had a cargo capacity of 5591 cubic meters.
The Red Cross Line was primarily dependent on American tourism. When this declined in connection with the Great Depression , the shipping company was discontinued and the remaining ships Nerissa , Rosalind (1911) and Silvia (1909) were sold in 1928 to the British shipping company Furness, Withy & Co. based in West Hartlepool . In the course of the takeover, the Nerissa went to the Bermuda & West Indies Steamship Company, a subdivision of Furness, Withy & Co. founded in 1921. The steamer initially stayed on the New York – St. John's – Halifax, but from 1931 headed from New York to the Bermuda Islands and occasionally also Trinidad and the former Dutch colony Demerara in South America. Most recently she was registered in Hamilton , Bermuda.
Second World War
At the end of 1939, the Nerissa was requisitioned as a troop transport by the British government and converted accordingly. Accommodation for 250 soldiers was created and a 4-inch (10.2 cm) cannon and 40 mm Bofors gun were installed for defense , operated by six artillerymen from the Royal Artillery Marine Regiment.
Due to its maximum achievable speed of 17 knots, it was decided that the Nerissa did not need an escort , as convoys usually drove at an average cruising speed of 9 knots. She therefore went alone, as it was believed that she could escape any submarine. In addition to Canadian troops, the Nerissa continued to carry civilian passengers. By the spring of 1941, the ship had completed 39 ocean crossings from Halifax and St. John's to Liverpool in its new mission .
On September 7, 1940, the ship had 34 British children on board who were to be evacuated to Halifax as part of the Children's Overseas Reception Board (CORB) initiated by the British government .
Sinking
On Monday, April 21, 1941, the Nerissa cast off in Halifax on her 40th Atlantic crossing since the start of the war. The destination was Liverpool again. The command was Captain Gilbert Ratcliffe Watson, who had held his captain's license for 21 years and who had already survived four sinks in both world wars. Since July 17, 1940, he was the skipper of the Nerissa . On board were 106 crew members, the six artillerymen and 175 passengers. A large proportion of the passengers were members of the Royal Air Force , but there were also technicians from Nortel Networks , representatives of the press and a number of civilians. Three stowaways were also discovered during the trip. So there were a total of 290 people on board the Nerissa . The 3,049 tons of freight included 574 tons of aluminum, 251 tons of components for trucks and 352 tons of grenades . At the beginning of the voyage, the Nerissa was still part of convoy HX-121 , but at 10:15 p.m. on the day of departure the ship left the convoy and headed for St. John's, where it entered on April 23. There Captain Watson received instructions for the voyage from the British Admiralty . Then the Nerissa steamed into the open Atlantic .
On Wednesday April 30, 1941, the Nerissa reached an area patrolled by RAF Coastal Command aircraft . The next day the ship was supposed to reach Liverpool. At nightfall, a Lockheed Hudson piloted by Deryck McCusker flew over the ship and signaled that the area was free of enemy submarines. The ship passed Rockall southeast and was only 200 miles from Liverpool when it was sighted by U 552 that evening . U 552 was a German type VII C submarine , which was under the command of Oberleutnant zur See Erich Topp on patrol .
Topp decided to attack and shot a torpedo at the steamer, which hit him amidships on the starboard side at around 11.30 p.m. A violent explosion shook the ship, which almost cut it in half and destroyed some of the lifeboats that had not yet been lowered . Debris was hurled through the air. Immediately went off all the lights, the ship got flip side , and on board broke big panic. Captain Watson stopped the engines and ordered the ship to be abandoned. Some boats capsized trying to launch them. To make sure the ship really sank, two more torpedoes were fired three minutes after the first attack. These further hits exploded the ammunition storage rooms, causing the ship to be shaken by another heavy detonation. The Nerissa went down four minutes after the second torpedo.
In the short time it was still possible for the radio operator John PB Jeffery to send an emergency signal with the position of the ship. At dawn a Bristol Blenheim of the RAF Coastal Command reached the scene of the accident and at 7:50 a.m. on May 1, the survivors were rescued by the British destroyer Veteran . People had spent hours in the boats or in the ice-cold water, and dozens had succumbed to the effects of hypothermia , shock and exhaustion during the night . The veteran handed the shipwrecked the Kingcup , a Flower class corvette under the command of Lieutenant Commander Robert Arthur Dillon Cambridge, which brought them to Derry (Ireland). The Nerissa wreck is about 100 miles northwest of the Irish city of Donegal .
The victims
83 crew members and 124 passengers, a total of 207 people, were killed by the sinking, including the radio operator Jeffery. 23 crew members, the six artillerymen, the three stowaways and 51 passengers survived (83 people in total). Captain Watson was also among the fatalities. He would have turned 58 four days later.
Among the dead passengers were Alfred Baldwin Raper, Member of the House of Commons and former MP for the London borough of Islington , and Joy Denbigh Stuart-French, wife of Major Robert Fitzroy Stuart-French of the 11th Hussars. In addition, Kenneth Brown Collings , longtime member of the United States Marine Corps , former agent of the National Life and Accident Insurance Company, war correspondent , writer and the only American who was allowed to interview the last Emperor of Ethiopia , Haile Selassie , during the Italian occupation of Ethiopia, drowned .
The Nerissa's two stewardesses , Hilda Lynch and Florence Jones, were also killed. They gave their life jackets to the three children of Joseph E. Lomas' family from London. The entire family of five died when lifeboat No. 2 was blown up by the second torpedo impact.
literature
- Brian James Crabb. Beyond the Call of Duty . Shaun Tyas, 2006, ISBN 1-900289-66-0