Oropesa (ship)

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Oropesa p1
Ship data
flag United KingdomUnited Kingdom (trade flag) United Kingdom
Ship type Transatlantic liner
Callsign KGRJ
home port Liverpool
Shipping company Pacific Steam Navigation Company
Shipyard Cammell, Laird & Company , Birkenhead
Build number 835
Launch December 9, 1919
Commissioning 4th September 1920
Whereabouts Sunk January 16, 1941
Ship dimensions and crew
length
168 m ( Lüa )
width 20.2 m
Draft Max. 12.6 m
measurement 14,118 GRT
Machine system
machine 6 × steam turbine
Machine
performance
1,647 hp (1,211 kW)
Top
speed
15 kn (28 km / h)
propeller 1
Transport capacities
Permitted number of passengers I. class: 141
II. Class: 131
III. Class: 360
Others
Registration
numbers
143667

The Oropesa (II) was a passenger ship of the British shipping company Pacific Steam Navigation Company (PSNCo) that was put into service in 1920 and was used as an ocean liner on the North Atlantic . On January 16, 1941, the ship, which was not in a convoy , was torpedoed and sunk in the North Atlantic by the German submarine U 96 . 106 passengers and crew were killed, almost half of all people on board. The Oropesa was one of the largest ships sunk by U 96 and the largest ship that the Pacific Steam Navigation Company lost in its entire existence.

The ship

The 14,118 GRT steamship Oropesa was built at the Cammell, Laird & Company shipyard in Birkenhead, England, and named after the Spanish city of the same name in the province of Toledo . She was one of the largest passenger ships in her shipping company. The Oropesa was launched on December 9, 1919 and was completed in August 1920. On September 4, 1920, the Oropesa ran out on her maiden voyage . Their steam turbines ran on a twin screw and made 15 knots (about 28 km / h).

The Oropesa was built for the transatlantic line service and carried passengers, freight and mail from Hamburg via Southampton to New York and later from England to Africa. In 1921 she was chartered by the Royal Mail Line for the Hamburg – Southampton – New York route. On a voyage to South Africa in 1931, she had two princes on board, namely David, Prince of Wales , who later became King Edward VIII , and his brother George, Duke of Kent .

In September 1939 the liner was requisitioned by the British government and converted into a troop transport . On December 3 of the same year, as part of convoy HXF 11, she collided 70 miles off Halifax with the merchant ship Manchester Regiment of the British shipping company Manchester Liners . The Manchester Regiment went under, killing nine members of its 72-strong crew. The Oropesa , itself damaged, took the survivors on board and took them to Halifax.

Sinking

The destroyer HMS Westcott rescued 143 survivors with two Royal Navy tugs.

On Thursday, 12 December 1940 laid the Oropesa in Mombasa (Kenya) to another crossing from Liverpool. On board were 249 people (39 passengers , 208 crew members and two artillerymen from the Royal Navy ). There were no soldiers on board on this voyage. In addition to the passengers, there were mail and 8,252 tons of freight on board. The command was 55-year-old Captain Harry Edmund Hutton Croft. On December 19, the ship reached the city of Beira (Mozambique) and on December 25, she entered Cape Town . Then she circled the southern tip of Africa, crossed the Atlantic Ocean and passed the west coast of Ireland .

Five weeks after leaving Mozambique, on Thursday, January 16, 1941, the Oropesa was southeast of the rocky island of Rockall and was heading for Liverpool. In the early hours of the morning, frigate captain Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock spotted the passenger steamer on board his submarine U 96 about 100 nautical miles north of the Irish county of Donegal , which was sailing without escort . U 96 was on its second patrol .

03:56 shot U 96 a G7 a torpedo to the Oropesa , of the ship at the stern hit. Lehmann-Willenbrock waited, but the Oropesa that had been hit did not sink. At 4:40 a.m. and then again at 5:03 a.m. he fired catching shots , but these too had no effect. At 5:59 a.m. he tried one last time. This shot was a direct hit that hit the steamer below the bridge and severely damaged it. The Oropesa got flip side , taking water very quickly. At 06:16 the ship capsized and sank.

Oropesa (ship) (sea area around the British Isles)
Red pog.svg
Approximate location of the Oropesa wreck

Captain Croft, six passengers, 98 crew members and one of the two artillerymen (106 people in total) were killed. The 143 survivors were recovered by the tugs Superman and Tenacity and the W-class destroyer Westcott and brought to Liverpool. Of the 28 ships sunk by the U 96 , the Oropesa was the second largest after the passenger steamer Almeda Star (14,936 GRT).

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