The Zealandic (II) was a 1928 ocean liner of the British shipping company Shaw, Savill & Albion Steamship Company , which was used in passenger traffic between Great Britain and Australia . The ship was sunk by a German submarine in 1941, killing all 73 people on board.
The ship
The motor ship Zealandic was built at the Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson shipyard in Wallsend and was launched on November 25, 1927. The 147.09 meter long and 19.56 meter wide ship was commissioned for the shipping company Shaw, Savill & Albion Steamship Co., for which it sailed from Australia and New Zealand to Great Britain. The ship, which was completed in March 1928, was able to transport frozen goods in addition to the usual cargo. The ship's measurements were 8,281 GRT, 5,100 NRT and 10,876 DWT.
The ship was powered by two six-cylinder steam engines from Sulzer AG , which had been built by Wallsend Slipway & Engineering Company and had an output of 8,000 hp. The top speed was 16 knots (29.6 km / h). In February and March 1928, reports about the Zealandic appeared in The Motor Ship magazine . In May 1932 the Zealandic sailed from Bluff and Auckland in New Zealand to London . In May 1933 she drove from Brisbane via Sydney to Hull . On May 2, 1939, a fire broke out in the ship's engine room while it was moored at Pier 6 in Melbourne Harbor . The fire brigade was able to bring the fire under control within an hour.
On Friday January 17, 1941, the Zealandic was under the command of Captain Frederick James Ogilvie with passengers and cargo on a voyage from Liverpool to Brisbane . In addition to the captain, there were 64 crew members, two artillerymen and six passengers on board. At 00:45 at night, the unescorted steamer was hit northwest of Rockall at position 58 ° 28 ' N , 20 ° 43' W by a G7 torpedo that had been shot down by the German submarine U 106 (Korvettenkapitän Jürgen Oesten ).
58.466666666667 -20.716666666667
The Zealandic first stopped, set off emergency signals and then continued the journey. At 00:59 and at 01:27 more torpedoes were fired at the passenger ship. The crew of U 106 saw three lifeboats being launched, but the people in the lifeboats were never seen again after the ship went down. None of the 73 people on board the Zealandic survived the sinking.
