Voltaire (ship, 1923)
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The Voltaire (II) was a 1923 passenger ship of the British shipping company Lamport & Holt , which was used in passenger and mail traffic from Great Britain to New York and South America . During the Second World War , the ship served as HMS Voltaire (F47) as an Allied auxiliary cruiser (Armed Merchant Cruiser) until it was sunk by the German auxiliary cruiser Thor on April 4, 1941 . 75 people were killed.
The ship
The 13,245 GRT steamship Voltaire was built in Belfast, Northern Ireland at Workman, Clark & Co. Ltd. built and launched on August 14, 1923. The Voltaire , the shipping company's second ship with this name, was built to transport passengers, cargo and mail from Liverpool via New York to various South American countries such as Brazil , Argentina and Uruguay .
The shipping company was based in London , but the home port of their ships was Liverpool . The Voltaire was the sister ship of the 13,233 GRT Vandyck (II), which was commissioned in 1921 . The two steamers were commissioned to compensate for ship losses from the First World War , including the first Voltaire (8,406 GRT), which was sunk in 1916 by the German auxiliary cruiser Möve .
The ship had a chimney, two masts and two propellers and was powered by steam turbines, which allowed a top speed of 14 knots. Consisting of steel -built hull of Voltaire was 155.6 meters long and 19.6 meters wide. The passenger capacity was 300 passengers in the first, 150 in the second and 230 in the third class. The first class accommodations were divided into one, two and three-bed cabins, with some cabins with their own bathroom.
After the sinking of the passenger ship Vestris in 1928 and the New York stock market crash in 1929, Lamport & Holt temporarily suspended its service. The Voltaire was then laid up on the River Blackwater in Essex . After the shipping company resumed operations in the early 1930s, the Voltaire was painted white and from spring 1932 was used for cruises from England to the Mediterranean , the Baltic Sea , West Africa , the West Indies and the fjords of Norway . It turned out to be very popular with passengers.
In World War II
In June 1939 the Voltaire carried out a troop voyage to Bombay and was then sent to Scapa Flow to serve as a barge for the crews of the Royal Oak and the Iron Duke . When the Royal Oak was sunk in Scapa Flow by the German submarine U 47 on October 14, 1939 , the survivors were taken on board the Voltaire . The Iron Duke was also damaged and had to be aground. During the repairs, the Voltaire served as Iron Duke II temporarily as her replacement.
On October 27, 1939, the Voltaire was requested by the British Admiralty for service as an auxiliary cruiser. The corresponding renovations were carried out at Swan Hunter in Newcastle and completed on January 4, 1940. The ship was equipped with eight 152-mm cannons and two 76-mm cannons, which had previously been mounted on the Tiger , which was scrapped in 1932 . At the request of Lamport & Holt, most of the civil officers were allowed to keep their posts on the ship.
From January to April she was under the command of Captain Claude Lindsay Bate part of the Mediterranean fleet , then with the Halifax Escort Force, the Bermuda and Halifax Escort Force and from April 1941 she belonged to the South Atlantic Station.
Sinking
On April 4, 1941, the Voltaire was under the command of Captain James Alexander Pollard Blackburn, DSC , RN coming from Freetown alone on a patrol trip in the Central Atlantic, about 900 nautical miles west of the Cape Verde Islands . At around 6.15 a.m., the ship was sighted by the crew of the German trafficker Thor , who was on his first voyage under the command of Corvette Captain Otto Kähler .
At around 6.45 a.m., both sides opened fire on each other. After just a few minutes, the Voltaire was on fire. After half an hour only two of the ten cannons on board were working and at around 8:00 a.m. she hoisted the white flag. Shortly after the ship sank with severe impact side to starboard (position 14 ° 30 ' N , 40 ° 30' W ). Of the 273 people on board, 75 were killed. Among the survivors was the Canadian neurologist Charles Miller Fisher . The survivors were taken aboard the Thor and spent the remainder of the war in captivity .