RMS Lady Drake
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The RMS Lady Drake was a 1928 passenger ship of the Canadian shipping company Canadian National Steamship Company , which carried passengers, cargo and mail from Halifax to various ports in the Caribbean and back. On May 5, 1942, the ship was sunk north of Bermuda by a German submarine.
The ship
The 7,985 GRT steel- built steam turbine ship Lady Drake was built at the Cammell, Laird & Company shipyard in the English town of Birkenhead on the Mersey . It was launched on September 4, 1928 and was completed in December 1928. It was operated by the Canadian National Steamship Company, a Canadian shipping company based in Montreal . The ships of this company sailed from Montreal and Halifax to various port cities in the Caribbean , the West Indies and until 1936 also to Australia .
The Lady Drake was one of five new, around 8,000 GRT, modern sister ships that the shipping company had built in Great Britain. The others were the Lady Nelson (7,831 GRT), the Lady Hawkins (7,988 GRT), the Lady Rodney (8,194 GRT) and the Lady Somers (8,194 GRT), which entered service between December 1928 and April 1929. They were named after the wives of British admirals who had ties to the West Indies.
They were modern and luxurious. The passenger accommodations were designed for 103 first class passengers, 32 second class, 50 third class and an additional 120 other people who only wanted to make a short crossing as ferry guests. The ships each had a chimney, two masts and were powered by four steam turbines that acted on two propellers and enabled a maximum speed of 15 knots. There was space in the holds for 7,650 cubic meters of cargo and an additional 370 cubic meters of frozen food. Each of the ships had a glazed winter garden , a games deck and a lounge with a bar that stretched across the entire width of the ship. Great importance was attached to the equipment of the ships and the training of the crew, as the shipping company wanted to keep up with the standards of ships on the classic North Atlantic route.
The "Lady Boats", as the sister ships were called, headed for destinations such as St. Kitts and Nevis , Antigua and Barbuda , Montserrat , St. Lucia , Barbados , St. Vincent , Grenada , Trinidad and Demerara on their route. On the way back, the trip ended in Saint John instead of Halifax.
Sinking
On Monday, May 4, 1942, the Lady Drake cast off with 120 crew members and 147 passengers on board in Bermuda for the return journey to Saint John. In command was Captain Percy Ambrose Kelly, who had survived the sinking of the sister ship Lady Hawkins four months earlier as first officer . 251 people were killed. The Lady Drake drove without a convoy . At 3:05 a.m. on the following day, May 5, the ship was hit about 90 nautical miles north of Bermuda by a torpedo from the German U 106 submarine (Kapitänleutnant Hermann Rasch).
The Lady Drake sank in 25 minutes (position 35 ° 43 ′ N , 64 ° 43 ′ W, ). Six passengers and six crew members died. 256 people were able to get to safety in the lifeboats (141 passengers and 115 crew members, including Captain Kelly). On the second day on the open sea, the boats were passed by the Queen Mary , which did not stop due to the submarine danger, but disappeared as quickly as it had come. The following day, the survivors were finally picked up by the American mine sweeper Owl and brought back to Bermuda.