RMS Lady Hawkins
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The RMS Lady Hawkins was a passenger ship of the Canadian shipping company Canadian National Steamship Company , which carried passengers and cargo from Halifax to various ports in the Caribbean between 1928 and 1942 . On January 19, 1942, the Lady Hawkins , who was not armed and not in a convoy , was sunk by the German submarine U 66 by two torpedoes off Cape Hatteras on the coast of the US state of North Carolina . 251 passengers and crew members drowned.
The ship
The Lady Hawkins was built on the River Mersey at the Cammell, Laird & Company shipyard in the English city of Birkenhead . It was launched on August 16, 1928 and was completed in November 1928. The owner was 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 Hawkins was the second in a series of five new, around 8,000 GRT, modern sister ships that the shipping company had built in England. The others were the Lady Nelson (7,831 GRT), the Lady Drake (7,985 GRT), the Lady Rodney (8,194 GRT) and the Lady Somers (8,194 GRT), which entered service in 1928 and 1929. 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.
In the 1930s, the Lady Hawkins ran to destinations such as St. Kitts and Nevis , Antigua and Barbuda , Montserrat , St. Lucia , Barbados , St. Vincent , Grenada , Trinidad and Demerara . On the way back, the trip ended in Saint John instead of Halifax.
Sinking
In January 1942, the Lady Hawkins ran out of Montreal for another crossing to Bermuda. After making stops in Halifax and Boston , the ship steamed down the American east coast . There were 213 passengers and 109 crew members on board, a total of 322 people. Their captain was the 51 year old Huntley Osborne Giffin. The ship had 2908 tons of cargo on board. The Lady Hawkins drove without escort and was not armed.
On Monday morning, 19 January 1942, the ship was about 150 miles off Cape Hatteras on the coast of North Carolina by U 66 sighted a German submarine of type IX C , which is under the command of 27-year-old Lieutenant Commander Richard Zapp on his fourth patrol . At 7.43 a.m., Zapp opened fire on the liner.
The torpedo hit shook the Lady Hawkins . The front mast fell. Passengers and crew came on deck and made their way to the boats. Before the ship was evacuated, a second torpedo hit the engine room and sank the ship 30 minutes after the first attack. Most of the travelers were thrown into the water. Only one lifeboat made it to safety. 76 people had crouched together in the boat designed for 63 occupants and were waiting to be rescued. Five of them died in the open Atlantic during the next five days . The small amounts of water, food and brandy were strictly rationed.
71 survivors (22 crew members and 49 passengers) were picked up five days after the sinking of the Coamo , a passenger steamer of the American AGWI Lines, and brought to San Juan , Puerto Rico on January 28th . The Chief Officer, Percy Ambrose Kelly, was honored with the Member of the Order of the British Empire and Lloyd's War Medal for Bravery at Sea awards. 251 people were killed, including the captain, 86 crew members and 164 passengers. The sinking of the Lady Hawkins was one of the greatest loss of life on a civilian Canadian ship in World War II . She was part of the Paukenschlag company .
literature
- Felicity Hannington. The Lady Boats: The Life and Times of Canada's West Indies Merchant Fleet . Canadian Marine Transportation Center, Dalhousie University (Halifax), 1980
Web links
- The Lady Hawkins in the submarine database
- "Battle of The Atlantic: End of a Lady". Article about the sinking in Time magazine, February 9, 1942
- Entry in the ship directory Miramar Ship Index
- Canadian National Steamship Company promotional brochures and timetables
- The Lady Hawkins and her sister ships in a directory of their shipping company