Seaforth (ship)
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The Seaforth was a 1939 passenger and cargo ship of the British shipping company Elder Dempster Lines , which was built for the transatlantic liner service. The ship was sunk by the German submarine U 103 on February 18, 1941 , killing all 59 passengers and crew on board.
history
The motor ship Seaforth was built at the Caledon Shipbuilding & Engineering Company in the Scottish port city of Dundee and was launched there on November 22, 1938. Completion took place on February 24, 1939. The Seaforth was built for passenger and freight traffic from Great Britain to West Africa . On November 27, 1940, she ran in Liverpool after a trip from Lagos and on December 12, 1940, she cast off again for Lagos and stopped on the journey in Glasgow , Freetown , Sekondi-Takoradi , Cape Coast , Winneba and Accra . On January 11, 1941, the ship docked in Lagos. New crew members were recruited there on January 13, one of whom was released on January 25.
On Thursday, February 18, 1941, the Seaforth was under the command of the 52-year-old Captain Walter Minns on her return voyage from Monrovia (Liberia) to Liverpool. On board were 47 crew members, two gunners and ten passengers, including four women. The freight consisted of West African products.
At 9:33 p.m. on February 18, the lone ship south of Iceland was hit amidships by a torpedo from the German submarine U 103 , which was under the command of Captain Viktor Schütze on its third patrol . After a catch shot at 21.50 which sank Seaforth quickly over the rear to the position 58 ° 48 ' N , 18 ° 17' W . U 103 had already sighted the ship at 1.55 p.m. and torpedoed it for the first time at 9.30 p.m., but this torpedo missed. On board the submarine it was seen that lifeboats were cleared after the first hit, but none of the 59 people on board the Seaforth survived the sinking.
The sinking of the Seaforth was not announced in British newspapers. In official records, the ship had "missed" status for a few months. Only on September 23, 1941 was it noted by the authorities that the Seaforth "was torpedoed on February 18, 1941 and presumably sank". The names of the Seaforth sailors are listed on the Tower Hill Memorial on the south side of Trinity Square Gardens in London .