UK ship sunk by U-boat discovered

[STEED]

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/uk-ship-sun...164528145.html

Quick get that £132 million, we need it to help pay the debt.

[Osmium Steele]

Good luck recovering the silver from 3 miles down.

Incredible find though!

[BossMark]

Originally Posted by STEED

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/uk-ship-sun...164528145.html

Quick get that £132 million, we need it to help pay the debt.

Yep tossers Dave and George would like it to say we have cleared £132m off our debts

[Rhodes]

Damn, it shoud been sunk near Madeira...

Originally Posted by STEED

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/uk-ship-sun...164528145.html

Quick get that £132 million, we need it to help pay the debt.

you got a dept then Steed, I have't

[Torplexed]

I hope they got the ship's manifest right. It would be embarrassing to recover the cargo and find it was actually rubber or coal.

They keep reporting it on the radio today as "a ship that was sunk by a Nazi torpedo", as if the warhead was emblazoned with a big black swastika. I guess German torpedo didn't sound dramatic enough.

[papa_smurf]

Could this be the start of a new rush to salvage other sunken ships form this era. Not to put a downer on this, but many sailors went down with these ships and thus can be considered as war graves.

[Jimbuna]

The salvage company do best out of it...80% of the cargoes value

[papa_smurf]

Originally Posted by jimbuna

The salvage company do best out of it...80% of the cargoes value

I think thats due to the ship been sunk in international waters, if it was in UK territorial water UK government would get more, if not all (I think, may be wrong).

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by papa_smurf

I think thats due to the ship been sunk in international waters, if it was in UK territorial water UK government would get more, if not all (I think, may be wrong).

Either way it's not going to go very far....might cover Camerons QPR season ticket

[Herr-Berbunch]

Originally Posted by jimbuna

The salvage company do best out of it...80% of the cargoes value

That's just over £100m, but what cost to recover the load? There will be a profit, I imagine, but not too much.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Herr-Berbunch

That's just over £100m, but what cost to recover the load? There will be a profit, I imagine, but not too much.

Well personally speaking, if she has war dead aboard I'd rather they left her alone.

[Rongel]

Whoa!

I just read more about this from the newspaper. It read that the captain of the U-boat was Ernst Mengersen. U-101 fired four torpedoes but only one hit the ship. Still the 5237 ton ship went down in 20 minutes. And this was the shocking part, 85 crewmembers escaped to lifeboats, but the crew of the U-boat fired them with machineguns and only one survived, man called Richard Ayres.

EDIT: Weird, one newsite says that the lifeboats capsized and the men drown, no word about shootings...

[mookiemookie]

Originally Posted by Torplexed

They keep reporting it on the radio today as "a ship that was sunk by a Nazi torpedo", as if the warhead was emblazoned with a big black swastika. I guess German torpedo didn't sound dramatic enough.

Hey you don't know, maybe that torpedo was a card carrying member of the party.

[Hottentot]

Originally Posted by Rongel

Whoa!

I just read more about this from the newspaper. It read that the captain of the U-boat was Ernst Mengersen. U-101 fired four torpedoes but only one hit the ship. Still the 5237 ton ship went down in 20 minutes. And this was the shocking part, 85 crewmembers escaped to lifeboats, but the crew of the U-boat fired them with machineguns and only one survived, man called Richard Ayres.

EDIT: Weird, one newsite says that the lifeboats capsized and the men drown, no word about shootings...

Here is the U-boat.net's article on the ship

And here is how they tell the events:

At 00.08 hours on 17 Feb, 1941, the unescorted Gairsoppa (Master Gerald Hyland) was hit on the starboard side just behind the bridge in #2 hold by one G7a torpedo from U-101 about 300 miles southwest of Galway Bay, Ireland. The ship had been in convoy SL-64 which was slowed down by bad weather and running low on coal, she was detached alone to Galway on 15 February.

At 18.00 hours on 16 February, the U-boat spotted the ship but had troubles to hit the target due to heavy seas and missed with a spread of two torpedoes at 23.28 hours and one G7e torpedo at 23.32 hours. The Gairsoppa caught fire and settled slowly by the bow after being hit in the third attack, but Mengersen decided to give up further attacks when a coup de grâce missed at 00.20 hours, assuming correctly that the burning freighter will sink anyway in the heavy seas.

The survivors managed to abandon ship in three lifeboats before she sank within 20 minutes. However, two of the boats were never seen again and its occupants presumably perished in the cold and bad weather. The boat in charge of the second officer set sail with eight Europeans and 23 Lascars aboard, but after seven days most had died of exposure and only four Europeans and two Lascars were still alive when the boat reached land on 1 March. Sadly, it capsized in the swell and surf of Caerthillian Cove on The Lizard, Cornwall and all occupants drowned except the second officer, who was rescued unconscious by a coastguard. The bodies of two Europeans and the two unidentified Lascars were recovered and buried in the Landewednack Churchyard. The master, 82 crew members and two gunners were lost.

Edit: Also, it appears Mengersen survived the war. I suppose they would have tried him as war criminal if such shooting had happened.