RMS Laconia (1921)
RMS Laconia
| |
History | |
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United Kingdom | |
Name | Laconia |
Namesake | Laconia |
Owner |
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Operator |
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Port of registry | Liverpool |
Route | Liverpool – Boston – New York |
Builder | Swan Hunter, Wallsend, England |
Yard number | 1125 |
Launched | 9 April 1921 |
Completed | January 1922 |
Maiden voyage | 25 May 1922 |
Identification |
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Fate | Sunk, 12 September 1942 |
General characteristics | |
Type | Ocean liner |
Tonnage | |
Length | 601.3 ft (183.3 m) |
Beam | 73.7 ft (22.5 m) |
Draught | 32 ft 8 in (10.0 m) |
Depth | 40.6 ft (12.4 m) |
Installed power | 6 steam turbines, double reduction geared |
Propulsion | Twin propellers |
Speed | 16 knots (30 km/h) |
Capacity |
|
Notes | 54,089 cubic feet (1,531.6 m3) refrigerated cargo |
RMS Laconia was a
Description
Laconia was 601.3 ft (183.3 m) long, with a beam of 73.7 ft (22.5 m). She had a depth of 40.6 ft (12.4 m) and a draught of 32 feet 8 inches (10.0 m). She was powered by six steam turbines of 2,561 nhp, which drove twin screw propellers via double reduction gearing. The turbines were made by the Wallsend Slipway & Engineering Company, Newcastle upon Tyne.[1] In addition to her passenger accommodation, Laconia had 54,089 cubic feet (1,531.6 m3) of refrigerated cargo space.[2]
Early career
Laconia was built by Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson Ltd, Wallsend, Northumberland.[1] Launched on 9 April 1921, she was completed in January 1922.[3] Her port of registry was Liverpool. Her UK official number was 145925, and until 1933 her code letters were KLWT.[1] As a Royal Mail Ship, Laconia was entitled to display the Royal Mail "crown" logo as a part of her crest.
Round the World
On 21 November 1922, Laconia began an around-the-world cruise, a charter by the
Regular Route
The Laconia primarily sailed on Cunard's Liverpool-Boston-New York transatlantic service from late Spring to early Winter while she was employed in extended cruises to warmer climes from January to April.
Collisions
On 8 September 1925, Laconia collided with the British
Drafted into war service
On 4 September 1939, the
On 9 June, she ran aground in the Bedford Basin at Halifax, suffering considerable damage, and repairs were not completed till the end of July. In October her passenger accommodation was dismantled and some areas filled with oil drums to provide extra buoyancy so that she would stay afloat longer if torpedoed.
During the period June–August 1941 Laconia returned to
Final voyage
On 12 September 1942, at 8:10 pm, 130 miles (210 km) north-northeast of Ascension Island, Laconia was hit on the starboard side by a torpedo fired by U-boat U-156. There was an explosion in the hold and many of the Italian prisoners aboard were killed instantly. The vessel immediately took a list to starboard and settled heavily by the bow. Captain Rudolph Sharp, who had also commanded another Cunard liner, RMS Lancastria when she was sunk by enemy action, was gaining control over the situation when a second torpedo hit Number Two hold. At the time of the attack, the Laconia was carrying 268 British personnel (including many women and nurses), 160 Polish soldiers (who were on guard), more than 80 civilians, and roughly 1,800 Italian prisoners of war.[9]
Captain Sharp ordered the ship abandoned and the women, children and injured taken into the lifeboats first. By this time, the ship's forecastle was awash. Some of the 32 lifeboats had been destroyed by the explosions. According to Italian survivors, many of the POWs were left locked in the holds, and some of those who escaped and tried to board lifeboats and liferafts were shot or bayoneted by their Polish captors.[10] While most British and Polish troops and crew survived, only 415 Italians were rescued, out of 1,809 who had been on board.[11]
At 9:11 pm Laconia sank, bow first, her stern rising to be vertical, with Sharp himself and many of the Italian prisoners still on board. The prospects for those who escaped the ship were only slightly better; sharks were common in the area and the lifeboats were adrift in the mid-Atlantic with little hope of rescue.
When Kapitänleutnant
The next morning, a
After the incident, Admiral Karl Dönitz issued the Laconia Order, henceforth ordering his commanders not to rescue survivors after attacks. Vichy French ships rescued 1,083 persons from the lifeboats and took aboard those picked up by the four submarines, and in all around 1,500 survived the sinking. Other sources state that only 1,083 survived and an estimated 1,658 persons died (98 crew members, 133 passengers, 33 Polish guards and 1,394 Italian prisoners), though some estimates agree that the death toll was as high as 1,757. More people lost their lives on the Laconia than on the Titanic.[10]
Amongst the French ships involved in the rescue were Annamite, Dumont-d'Urville and Gloire.[15][16]
Media
On 6 and 7 January 2011,
See also
- Maritime disasters
- The Sinking of the Laconia
- List of ships sunk by submarines by death toll
References
- ^ a b c "Steamers and Motorships". Lloyd's Register of Shipping (PDF). Vol. II. Lloyd's Register of Shipping. 1933. LA–LAD. Retrieved 8 January 2011 – via Southampton City Council.
- ^ "List of Vessels Fitted with Refrigerating Appliances". Lloyd's Register of Shipping (PDF). Vol. I. Lloyd's Register of Shipping. Retrieved 8 January 2011 – via Southampton City Council.
- ^ Kludas, Arnold, 1976. Great Passenger Ships of the World Vol. II: 1913–1923, p. 138. Cambridge, UK. Patrick Stephens, Ltd
- ^ "Cunard: The first continuous world cruise". The Maritime Executive. 21 June 2015. Retrieved 26 December 2021.
- ^ "Casualty reports". The Times. No. 44062. London. 9 September 1925. col E, p. 20.
- ^ Mercantile Navy List. 1930. Retrieved 28 June 2022 – via Crew List Index Project.
- ^ "Steamers & Motorships". Lloyd's Register of Shipping (PDF). Vol. II. Lloyd's Register of Shipping. 1934. LA–LAD. Retrieved 8 January 2011 – via Southampton City Council.
- ^ "Steamers crash in fog off Cape". The New York Times. 25 September 1934. p. 45 – via Times Machine.
- ^ Helgason, Guðmundur. "The Laconia Incident". uboat.net.
- ^ a b "Laconia – L'Odissea Della Nave Laconia". cronologia.leonardo.it. Archived from the original on 6 September 2012. Retrieved 27 September 2016.
- ^ Helgason, Guðmundur. "Laconia, British Troop transport". uboat.net.
- ^ Thorpe, Vanessa (2 January 2011). "Alan Bleasdale drama sets the record straight on heroic U-boat captain". The Observer.
- ^ "YouTube". www.youtube.com.
- ^ Bridgland, Tony, 1963. Waves of Hate: Naval Atrocities of the 2nd World War. p. 80 :"Nobody told us anything about Hartenstein's message. We knew nothing of this until after the war"
- ^ Date, Norman (31 March 2004). "The Loss of the Cunard Ship Laconia – Albert Goode MN". WW2 People's War. BBC. Retrieved 8 January 2011.
- ^ "The Sinking of the Laconia: Survivors' Stories". IMDb. 8 January 2011.
- ^ "The sinking of the RMS Laconia in World War II". BBC. 6 January 2011. Retrieved 6 January 2010.
Further reading
- Duffy, James P. The Sinking of the Laconia and the U-boat War: Disaster in the Mid-Atlantic (University of Nebraska Press, 2013) 129 pp.