In
December of 1940, the steel-hulled British cargo steamship Gairsoppa,
carrying 83 crew members and 2 gunners — in addition to 7,000 tons of
silver, pig iron, tea, and other cargo — set sail from Calcutta, India.
Upon reaching Freetown, Sierra Leone, the ship united with a merchant
convoy. Although the U.K. Director of Sea Transport had requested all
merchant ships join the British fleet during wartime emergencies, this
convoy was unescorted — many of the ships were older, in a poor state of
repair, and couldn’t keep up with the pace of military vessels.
After
sailing unprotected in the dangerous waters of the Atlantic, the group
of aging merchant ships intended to join an escorted convoy, but that
convoy was attacked by German U-boat U-37 and lost seven ships. The
Gairsoppa and its companions had no choice but to continue northward
unprotected. Weakened by 22 years of wear and loaded with heavy cargo,
the vessel was forced to reduce its speed in the wake of ocean swell and
high winds. As the weather worsened, and with fuel supplies that were
diminishing, the ship broke away from the convoy and headed for west
Ireland, hoping for the best.
Alone
at sea, the Gairsoppa was an easy target for Nazi submarines, and after
being spotted by a German Focke-Wulf Fw 200 airplane, it was doomed.
Just 14 hours later, German U-boat U-101 captain Ernst Mengersen located
it 300 miles southwest of Galway Bay. The Nazis fired four torpedoes,
one of which hit the ailing steamship, causing an explosion and snapping
the wireless antennae used to transmit distress calls. The ship sank
shortly after the attack into the icy waters of the North Atlantic. In a
desperate attempt to survive, the crew abandoned ship, but only one
person, Second Officer, Mr. R.H. Ayres, survived the 13-day journey to
shore in a lifeboat.
