Almeda Star ~ 17 January 1941

After WWII broke out in September 1939, the Almeda Star continued to sail her route independently of convoys. On September 29, 1939 off Rio de Janeiro she was met by the Royal Navy cruiser HMS Ajax, which was looking for British and Allied ships to escort northwards because of the threat of German raiders in the area.

On December 22, 1940 Almeda Star was on the River Mersey in Liverpool when she was slightly damaged in an air raid. On January 15 she sailed from Liverpool bound for the River Plate, carrying 194 passengers including 142 members of the Fleet Air Army en route to RNAS Piarco on Trinidad. They were 21 officers and 121 ratings from 749, 750 and 752 squadrons.

Shipping between Britain and the Atlantic had to pass through the Western Approaches, so this area attracted a number of U-boat attacks. On the morning of January 16, the day after Almeda Star sailed, German submarine U-96 had sunk the passenger liner Oropesa in the Western Approaches, killing 106 of the people aboard. At 0745 hrs on January 17, 1941 Almeda Star was about 35 nautical miles north of Rockall in heavy seas when the same submarine, commanded by Kptlt Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock, hit her amidships with one G7e torpedo, causing Almeda Star to stop.

The ship did not immediately sink so U-96 fired again at 0805 and 0907 hrs, hitting Almeda Star in the stern and again amidships. The ship had launched four lifeboats but still had people on deck when U-96 surfaced and opened fire on her with her 88 mm deck gun. Between 0932 and 0948 hrs the submarine fired 28 incendiary shells, about 15 of which hit Almeda Star and started small fires aboard. The fires soon went out, so at 0955 hrs U-96 hit the ship with a fourth torpedo, which exploded in her forepart. Within three minutes Almeda Star sank by her bow.

Almeda Star had transmitted one distress message and the Royal Navy responded by sending seven destroyers to search the area. They found neither survivors, boats nor wreckage: all 360 people aboard were lost, including those in the four lifeboats that had been launched. U-96 had been at the scene for more than two hours but escaped undetected.

Click HERE for details of 319 people who were on board.

Armenia ~ 7 November 1941

Found at www.historyinanhour.com

Hospital ship Armenia torpedoed by the Nazis

On the 7 November 1941, the Soviet hospital ship, the Armenia, was torpedoed and sunk by the Nazis. It was one of the worse maritime disasters in history. All but eight of the 7,000 passengers perished on a ship designed for not more than a thousand. A comparatively modest 1,514 died on the Titanic (1912) and 1,198 on the Lusitania (1915) yet the sinking of the Armenia on 7 November 1941 is all but lost to history.

Sunk in the Black Sea, the exact location of the wreck is still a mystery and for years, the question remained – was a hospital ship, identified by a Red Cross, a legitimate target?

A stricken city

Designed for 980 passengers and crew, over seven times that number had surged onto the ship in the Crimean port of Yalta that fateful night of 7 November 1941. The reason was blind panic. The Nazi war machine, which had invaded the Soviet Union less than five months before, had overrun the Crimean peninsula and was bearing down on Yalta. People expected the city to fall within a matter of hours. The only possible means of escape for its stricken population was by sea – the roads outside the city having been sealed off by the Germans.

Built in Leningrad in 1928, the double-decker Armenia began its career as a passenger ship. In August 1941, following the outbreak of war, it was pressed into military service as a hospital ship. The day before its sinking, the Armenia had left the port of Sevastopol having taken civilian evacuees and the occupants of several military hospitals. Crammed with up to 5,000 passengers, the ship made for Tuapse, a town on the northeast coast of the Black Sea, about 250 miles east. But the captain, Captain Vladimir Plaushevsky, received orders to pick up extra people from nearby Yalta.

More civilians and wounded soldiers, some severely, crammed onto the ship amid scenes of chaos and utter panic. No register was taken, no names recorded of these additional two thousand passengers. Captain Plaushevsky then received orders to remain in port until escort vessels were at hand to chaperon him out. The delay frustrated the captain, he had to get going, they were cutting it too fine.

Torpedoed

The next morning, seven o’clock, the Armenia finally set sail, escorted by two armed boats and two fighter planes.

The escorts were unable to prevent a German torpedo bomber, a Heinkel He-111, swooping-in low and firing two torpedoes at the ship. It was 11.29 am, the ship was 25 miles into its journey. The first torpedo missed but the second one scored a direct hit, splitting the ship into two. The Armenia sunk within just four minutes. All but eight of the 7,000 passengers died, the survivors being picked up by a patrol boat.

The tragedy lay in the postponement of its departure. If Captain Plaushevsky had not lost those precious hours, the ship may well have arrived at its intended destination.

Lying at a depth of about 480 metres, the location of the Armenia wreck remains unknown despite the efforts of oceanic explorer, Robert Ballard, discoverer of several historical wrecks including the aforementioned Titanic and Lusitania.

A legitimate target?

Was the Armenia a legitimate target? As a hospital ship, it was clearly marked with the Red Cross, both on its sides and, clearly visible to the German pilots, on the deck. But it had a military escort, and it had two of its own anti-aircraft guns, so under the rules of war, it was a perfectly acceptable target.

But this doesn’t detract from the catastrophe of its sinking and today we should remember, if only momentarily, the forgotten tragedy of the Armenia.

Rupert Colley

Rupert Colley is the author of The Black Maria, a chilling tale set in Stalin’s Moscow.

Avoceta ~ 25 September 1941

The SS Avoceta was a British steam passenger liner. She was built in Dundee in 1923 and belonged to the Yeoward Line, which carried passengers and fruit between Liverpool, Lisbon, Madeira and the Canary Islands.

Avoceta is Spanish for avocet. Yeoward Brothers had a previous ship called Avocet that was built in 1885 and sunk by U-50 in 1917.

On August 13, 1941 Avoceta‍ '​s sister ship Aguila left Liverpool in OG 71. On August 19, 1941 Avoceta followed, leaving Liverpool with Convoy OG 72. On August 18-23 OG 71 became the first Allied convoy to be attacked by a U-boat wolfpack. OG 72 safely reached Gibraltar on September 4, but there received news that OG 71 had been attacked, 10 ships sank, and they included Aguila which had been lost with 152 dead and only 16 survivors.

From Gibraltar Avoceta made her usual round trip to Lisbon and back (September 2-15). In Lisbon she embarked dozens of refugees from German-occupied Europe: UK subjects who had escaped the fall of France and had been denied leave to remain by the authorities in neutral Spain and Portugal. Most were women and children, some of them of French or Spanish origin, several following their husbands to the UK. Once back in Gibraltar Avoceta also embarked survivors rescued from the loss of Aguila. Her cargo included cork, 573 sacks of mail and some diplomatic bags.

Avoceta was one of 25 merchant ships that formed Convoy HG 73, which left Gibraltar on September 17 bound for Liverpool. HG 73's Commodore, Rear Admiral Sir Kenelm Creighton, KBE, MVO, traveled on Avoceta. In response to the new wolfpack tactic, HG 73's initial escort included three destroyers, one sloop, 8 corvettes and the fighter catapult ship HMS Springbank. At first this was successful: on September 18 a Luftwaffe Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor found HG 73 and signaled its position and course, but on the moonless night of September 21-22 the destroyer HMS Vimy damaged the Italian submarine Luigi Torelli with depth charges and drove her away. On September 22 another destroyer, HMS Highlander, rendezvoused with the convoy and reinforced its escort. On September 24 an Fw 200 patrol aircraft again sighted HG 73, but a Fairey Fulmar aircraft from Springbank drove it off.

The next morning the German submarine U-124 sank the cargo ship Empire Stream. Then on the night of September 25-26 the attack increased. Avoceta was in the first row of the convoy, with the Norwegian cargo ship Varangberg in the position astern of her. At 0031 hrs U-203 fired a spread of four torpedoes from their port side. One hit Avoceta close to her engine room and two hit Varangberg. Admiral Creighton was on Avoceta‍ '​s bridge, and later recalled that when hit "She staggered like a stumbling horse".

Both ships sank quickly, and Varangberg had no time to launch her lifeboats. Avoceta sank by the stern, and her bows quickly rose to such an angle that her lifeboats could not be lowered. However, the liner had three life rafts mounted so as to float clear in the event of a shipwreck, and one of her radio officers survived by clinging to a large piece of her cork cargo that had floated free from one of her holds.

123 people from Avoceta and 21 crew from Varangberg were lost. Avoceta‍ '​s dead included 43 crew, nine Navy staff, four DEMS gunners and 67 civilian passengers, including 32 women and 20 children. The youngest victims were four one-year-old babies. The Barker family, six children under 16 and their mother Ida, died together. Three victims were in their early 70s; the oldest was Ernest Andrews, aged 73. The Reverend Edward Stanley and his sister Elizabeth, both in their 60s, had been returning from missionary work in Vichy France. A Jewish couple in their 60s, Semtov Jacob Yahiel and his wife Luna, had been living in Paris but the husband was a British subject so they were trying to reach relative safety in Britain. Two victims were from British India: Musserwanji Marshall, aged 72, and a young graduate, Saraswati Kitchlu. 

The Flower-class corvettes HMS Jasmine and Periwinkle rescued 40 survivors from Avoceta. Jasmine also saved six of Varangberg's crew who were clinging to rafts and floating wreckage. The merchant ship Cervantes saved another three of Avoceta‍ '​s crew. Avoceta‍ '​s survivors were Admiral Creighton and five of his Royal Navy staff, her Master Harold Martin and 22 of his crew, two DEMS gunners and 12 passengers. A day later U-201 sank Cervantes, killing eight people, but the merchant ship Starling rescued 32 including Cervantes‍ '​ three survivors from Avoceta. Jasmine and Periwinkle landed their survivors at Milford Haven, Wales.

Click HERE for details of 124 people who were on board.

Barøy ~ 13 September 1941

The SS Barøy was a 424 ton steel-hulled steamship delivered from the Trondhjems mekaniske Værksted shipyard in Trondheim in 1929. She had been ordered by the Norwegian shipping company Ofotens Dampskibsselskab for the local route from the port city of Narvik to the smaller towns of Lødingen and Svolvær. After the company suffered ship losses in the 1940 Norwegian Campaign Barøy was put into Hurtigruten service on the Trondheim–Narvik route. 

After surviving the German invasion on April 9, 1940 and the 62-day long Norwegian Campaign that followed it, Barøy was set to assist in the transportation of released German prisoners of war from the Norwegian prisoner of war camp on the island of Skorpa in Kvænangen, Troms. Barøy carried out the mission together with Finnmark Fylkesrederi's steamer Tanahorn, the latter carrying some 200 Germans to Tromsø and Barøy taking the remaining 260 to the same port city. Barøy continued serving in Nordnorge's place during the German occupation of Norway, Nordnorge having been sunk by Royal Navy warships during the Norwegian Campaign after she had been pressed into service as a covert troopship by the invading German forces. Barøy was considered too small a vessel for the longer distances, such as the Hurtigruten route between Bergen and Narvik, and her prolonged service on the route was an emergency measure.

A year and a half after the German invasion Barøy was still sailing the Hurtigruten route as the fifth weekly northbound departure from Trondheim to Narvik. In the early hours of September 13, 1941 she was on her way northwards, and had recently called at Skutvik on her way to Tranøy on Hamarøy. On board the ship was a crew of 26, as well as 105 passengers, 37 of whom were German soldiers. The German troops on board were members of the 197th Infantry Division.

At 0350hrs on September 13 Barøy was struck by a torpedo some 2 nautical miles (3.7 km) west of Tranøy Lighthouse and sank within minutes. The torpedo ripped open the ship's hull, quickly flooding her with water, and immediately knocking out the electrical power on board. Due to the ship sinking so rapidly there was no time to lower the lifeboats, and the people on board had to jump into the water in order to survive. At the time of the sinking the water temperature was 7–8 °C. 

Nazi propaganda posters attempted
to link Norwegian King Haakon VII
to the sinking of civilian
Norwegian ships.

The torpedo that sank Barøy had been dropped by an 817 Squadron Fairey Albacore, one of seven that attacked shipping in the Vestfjorden area that morning. At the time of the attack Barøy had been sailing with full lighting due to work being carried out on the deck cargo. The wreck of the ship rests at depth of around 980 ft.

The first ship to discover the sinking of Barøy was the 762 ton Norwegian cargo ship SS Skjestad, which passed the scene of the sinking on her way southwards and rescued 19 survivors, as well as recovering 15 bodies. The survivors of the sinking were set ashore at Svolvær. Seventy-seven Norwegians died in the attack, including seven children and 21 women. Fifty-nine of the 68 Norwegian passengers were lost, while 18 of the 26 crew members died. Of the 37 German soldiers only two survived.

One of the consequences of the sinking of Barøy, together with the sinking of fellow Hurtigruten ship SS Richard With off Rolvsøy in Finnmark later the same day, was that the Hurtigruten ships would no longer sail further north than Tromsø. Between Tromsø and Hammerfest the route was taken over by smaller replacement ships.

The Nazi regime in Norway used the attack on Barøy, together with other attacks on civilian Norwegian shipping, in propaganda against the Allies. On May 20, 1944 the Nazi-controlled Norwegian Postal Service issued a series of postage stamps commemorating three of the most infamous cases of Norwegian ships sunk by Allied attacks. Barøy was the subject of the 10 øre stamp, while SS Sanct Svithun and SS Irma were depicted on the 15 øre and 20 øre stamps respectively. The shipwreck stamps were designed by German-born Norwegian Nazi propaganda artist and war reporter Harald Damsleth.

Britannia ~ 25 March 1941

The Britannia was built in Glasgow by Alexander
Stephen & Sons. She entered service in 1926.
Found at www.ssbritannia.org.

The SS Britannia was built in Glasgow by Alexander Stephen and Sons. She entered service in 1926. On the 11th March 1941 SS Britannia set out from Liverpool to Freetown, Durban and Bombay. She was originally a passenger ship of the Anchor Line and was operating as a troop ship under the command of Captain A Collie.

The voyage began with the Britannia as a member of a convoy with an anti-submarine escort. By the 25th of March the rest of the convoy had disappeared and the Britannia was on her own. Early that same morning she was attacked by the German Hilfskreuzer (auxiliary cruiser) Thor, a converted merchant ship, under the command of Kapitän Otto Kähler.

The Thor was armed with six 5.9 inch guns and easily overpowered the Britannia. When her single rear 4 inch gun was destroyed Captain Collie gave the order to abandon ship.

Britannia's radio operator had managed to get off an RRR (Raider, Raider, Raider) signal with her location, which was acknowledged by Sierra Leone radio. The Thor picked up radio traffic which indicated that a Royal Navy warship was on its way at speed. In the light of this information, Kapitän Kähler did not stay to pick up survivors.

After giving warning and allowing time to abandon ship, he shelled the Britannia on her waterline and she sank quickly. He heard later that no warship had arrived and that some of the survivors had spent many days on rafts and in lifeboats before being picked up by other ships that happened to be in the area. 

The SS Britannia was carrying service personnel, passengers and crew when she was attacked and sunk. There were 492 people on board, 243 of them survived. The survivors took to the ship's lifeboats and some threw baulks of timber overboard and used them as makeshift rafts. Many died at sea as they waited to be rescued. Lifeboat #5 carried about 50 survivors who were picked up by the Spanish ship Bachi.

The Spanish ship Cabo de Hornos was in the area five days after the sinking and picked up 2nd Lt. Cox, Sub Lt. Davidson and Lt. Rowlandson from the 1st Raft. On board the Cabowas a French Baroness who, with Lt. Rowlandson, persuaded the captain to keep searching. They later picked up Spencer Mynott and Alfred Warren from the 2nd Raft, and survivors from another raft and two lifeboats, a total of 77, who were taken to the island of Tenerife.

67 were rescued by the MV Raranga and taken to Montevideo. Four more survivors on another raft were picked up by another Spanish ship. After 23 days at sea, 38 survivors reached the coast of Brazil on Britannia's Lifeboat Number Seven, having navigated across most of the Atlantic.

Sources differ considerably between the numbers of passengers, crew and survivors. Official sources record 243 survivors out of a total of 492 who set out.

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Corregidor ~ 17 December 1941

The SS Corregidor was the Royal Navy seaplane tender HMS Engadine. After WWI, it was returned to passenger service as an inter-island steamship for the Compañia Maritima. On December 16-17, 1941 (around midnight, hence the event straddling two dates), the Corregidor hit a mine off Corregidor Island and sank. Of the 1,200 people aboard, 925 were killed and 275 rescued.

The following excerpt is from the book Life as an American Prisoner of War of the Japanese by Charles Balaza. Mr. Balaza served with Battery K, 59th Coast Artillery on Corregidor and was an eye witness of the Corregidor sinking.

"One night after being relieved from unknown hours of duty (I don't remember if I fell asleep, or passed out from lack of it), my short rest was ended by one of my crew telling me that a ship had just struck a mine in our area.
   Due to the fact that it was our searchlight that controlled this area of entrance from the China Sea into Manila Bay, and part of the North Channel between Corregidor and Bataan, I was very concerned as to what happened. We never received any orders from our command post to stand by for action, or to illuminate the buoy markers for any vessel's safe passage through the minefield. I immediately gave orders to interlock with searchlight #3, which was already in action, helping the rescue operation.
   Just then our phone rang, it was our command post ordering us to illuminate the area where the ship had hit one of the mines. I told them our light was already in action and had the ship in sight. I was ordered to keep the light in action until further notice.
   I looked at the vessel, it had struck a mine near a little island called Monja. It was in a vertical position, with its bow looking up to the heavens of the dark sky, as if begging for mercy by some great unknown miracle to be spared from her dreadful fate.
   In a few short minutes, it disappeared into its murky, watery grave, making sounds like that of a coffee percolator from the bubbling water that was filling its insides. At that moment, I forgot about my loss of sleep and minor problems. Our problems were insignificant compared to the men, women, and children who were trapped in shark infested waters trying to survive. I felt very helpless until I realized that our searchlight played a very important part in the rescue.
   Without our searchlight, the rescue mission would have been hampered by the darkness, making rescue operations more difficult in finding the people who were still alive. There was no moon, and the only light came from a few shining stars. Tired as we were, no one asked to be relieved from duty. We all stayed up until early dawn assisting in the rescue.
   Our concentration on rescuing the remaining survivors was soon broken when we heard what we though sounded like a flight of bombers. A dreadful fear spread among us, but no one suggested putting out the searchlight. We were committed to stay in action until further notice, and committed we stayed. To our joy, the noise that sounded like bombers was PT boats coming from Mariveles Naval Base in Bataan to assist in the rescue operations of the people who looked like little black specks in the distant waters.
   At about 4:30 or 5:00 AM we heard the sound of a fighter plane coming up from behind our position. It came up so quickly that it took us by surprise, and we all ducked for cover. The plane flew by without incident, so we thought it was our one and only plane going to help in the rescue. However, it banked right, and opened fire on Searchlight #3. I don't know why he didn't open up on us, we were perfect silhouette targets for him.
   As daylight broke, we secured our searchlights and could see PT boats circling the area looking for remaining survivors. After we couldn't help anymore, my crew and I passed out from exhaustion. I'm sure we weren't the only crew that had this problem. I was told that I even slept through a bombing that morning without flinching an eyebrow.
   I don't know the true reason why the captain of the SS Corregidor tried getting through the minefields without permission or searchlight assistance. On that dark night he nearly made it, only to strike a mine a short distance from the open sea."

Click HERE for recollections by George Steiger, an officer in Corregidor.

Click HERE for a dramatic account by one of the survivors of the sinking of the ship. From Not So Long. Ago: A Chronicle of My Life, Times, and Contemporaries by Jose E. Romero.

Oropesa ~ 16 January 1941

The SS Oropesa was a British steam turbine ocean liner of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company (PSNC). She was built on Merseyside in 1920 and operated between Liverpool and South America.

October 3, 1940 Oropesa left Liverpool with Convoy WS 3A, which reached Cape Town, South Africa on 27 October. On October 29 she continued from Cape Town with Convoy WS 3, which reached Suez on November 16.

The Oropesa left Suez on November 30 with Convoy BS 9A, which dispersed off Aden on December 5. On December 12 she left Mombasa, Kenya calling at Beira, Mozambique, on December 19 and Cape Town on Christmas Day.

On January 16, 1941 at 0356 hrs Oropesa was southeast of Rockall in the Western Approaches when the German Type VIIC submarine U-96, commanded by Kptlt Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock, hit her in the stern with one G7a torpedo. Oropesa did not sink immediately, so U-96 waited and at 0440 hrs fired another torpedo, but that malfunctioned and went in circles. U-96 fired again at 0503 and 0559 hrs, this time hitting Oropesa beneath her bridge and amidships. The liner capsized and sank at 0616 hrs.

106 people were killed: the Master, Harry Croft, 98 crew, a DEMS gunner and six passengers. The Royal Navy tugs HMS Superman and HMS Tenacity and W-class anti-submarine destroyer HMS Westcott rescued 109 crew, one DEMS gunner and 33 passengers and landed them at Liverpool.

U-96 had been at the scene for more than two hours but escaped before Westcott could detect her. The next morning the submarine struck in the Western Approaches again, sinking Almeda Star and killing all 360 people aboard.

Click HERE for details of 111 people who were on board.

Umona ~ 30 March 1941

The SS Umona was a British cargo and passenger liner. She was built at Sunderland on the River Wear in 1910. She spent her entire 31-year career with Bullard, King and Company and was the second of the company's ships of that name.

Bullard, King gave all its ships African names to highlight its Natal Direct line, which had linked Middlesbrough and London with Durban in Natal Province since 1879 and later with ports in Portuguese Mozambique and elsewhere in the Indian Ocean.

When WWII broke out, convoys protected only part of Umona‍ '​s long route between Britain and the Indian Ocean. There were many outbound convoys that gave merchant ships only a few days escort out of home waters.

On June 22, 1940 France surrendered to Germany, Germany occupied France's entire Atlantic and English Channel coasts and the French Navy was neutralized. The English Channel became more dangerous to Allied shipping, and convoy movements were modified.

At the beginning of 1941 Umona loaded general cargo and joined Convoy EN 57, which left Methil on January 15, rounded Cape Wrath and arrived off Oban two days later. Umona continued south, joining Convoy OB 276 which left Liverpool on January 20 and dispersed at sea on the 25th.

In March 1941 Umona sailed from Durban for London, laden with 1,549 tons of maize, 50 tons of pulses and 47 tons of jam. She called at Walvis Bay in South-West Africa on March 20 and headed unescorted for Freetown to join an inbound convoy. Umona‍ '​s complement was typical of many British merchant ships: her officers and stewards were British, her crew were Muslim Lascars and her carpenter was Chinese. By the time she left Walvis Bay she was carrying 14 passengers including seven distressed British seamen (DBS), i.e. British mariners who had survived the sinking of their ships and were going home.

Late the evening of March 30 Umona was about 90 nautical miles southwest of Freetown when the German submarine U-124 attacked her, hitting her with one torpedo at 2301 hours and another two minutes later. She quickly sank, killing her Master Frederick Peckham, 87 crew, seven DEMS gunners and 14 passengers. The radio officer on duty (Umona had three radio officers sharing duties in a watch system) stayed at his post as long as possible transmitting a distress message, then leaped into the sea.

Umona had managed to launch only one of her six lifeboats before she sank. It was commanded by her fourth officer, 20-year-old Edwin Clarke, but U-124 surfaced, captured Clarke and submerged. After sinking Allied ships Kriegsmarine vessels often sought to obtain intelligence from survivors, and particularly from officers.

Three other survivors managed to board a small life raft. One was the duty radio officer who had sent the distress message. The others were a badly wounded DEMS gunner, EG Elliot RN, and a passenger called Frank Brothers. After they had drifted for four days they sighted a submarine and used the reflective surface of a tobacco tin as a heliograph to attract her attention. The submarine, which may have been U-124, came and gave them fresh water. The next day the weather worsened, and in the afternoon the radio officer died.

On April 7 an escort of Convoy WS 7, the F-class destroyer HMS Foxhound, rescued three Lascar crewmen, apparently from the lifeboat from which Clarke had been captured. Foxhound did not see the raft, which continued to drift. On April 12 the British cargo ship Lorca sighted the raft and rescued Brothers and Elliot. Foxhound and Lorca each landed their survivors at Freetown.

In all, 109 men and two women from Umona died, Edwin Clarke was unaccounted for after being captured and was presumed dead, and only five survivors were rescued.

Click HERE for details of 101 people who were on board.

Zamzam ~ 17 April 1941

The Zamzam was sunk on April 17, 1941.
"Grief turned to joy."

In the spring of 1941, before the United States had entered World War II, the passenger ship Zamzam was sunk by a German raider in the South Atlantic. Among the Zamzam's 201 passengers were 142 Americans, most of whom were missionaries en route to Africa. The dramatic sinking and miraculous rescue became headline news in 1941.

Even today the story still captivates interest, especially when original material is discovered. For example, here are pictures of the American Zamzam survivors as they arrived in San Sebastian, Spain, on May 31, 1941. Earlier in the day they had been liberated after being held in German-occupied France for nearly two weeks, and before that they had been prisoners at sea for more than a month. From Spain they traveled to Portugal and eventually back to the United States.

These unique pictures were scanned from the photo album of Mr. Charles Carr, a Red Cross accountant who had been involved in helping the Zamzam survivors travel through Spain in 1941. The pictures were made available to by David Ford, a collector of World War II era photographs.

The Zamzam Story - Introduction

Found at www.dren.us / eleander2@cox.net

It was a cold night in March, 1941, when the passenger ship Zamzam slowly pulled away from her berth at Hoboken, New Jersey, and glided past the lighted Statue of Liberty. As she headed toward the open sea, many of her 201 passengers gathered on deck and spontaneously began singing Christian hymns. With hymn after hymn filling the crisp night air, the Zamzam began her final voyage.

Although World War II had begun, the war did not yet include the United States. The 142 Americans on the Zamzam felt no great danger. For one thing, the Zamzam had been promoted as a neutral ship, owned by Egypt. Furthermore, her unusual route suggested safety. To avoid war zones, the Zamzam would be traveling south by way of Trinidad Island; then make a stop at Brazil's coastal port of Recife; next follow a diagonal course across the South Atlantic to Capetown on the southern tip of Africa; then steam up Africa's east coast to Mombasa, Kenya; and finally head back to home port in Alexandria, Egypt.

The Zamzam's passenger list was rather unusual, too. The largest category was comprised of 144 missionaries, representing 20 Protestant denominations and also including 17 Catholic priests and teaching brothers. Another distinct group was the 24 members of the British-American Ambulance Corp, en route to North Africa for humanitarian purposes and bringing with them ambulances and other equipment. A third group was the six tobacconists from Wilson, North Carolina, headed for Southern Rhodesia. The remaining passengers were various businessmen or eager family members traveling to be reunited with loved ones in Africa. Among the varied other passengers were David E. Scherman, photographer for Life magazine, and Charles J.V. Murphy, editor of Fortune magazine. En route to Africa on assignment, they had boarded the Zamzam at Recife, Brazil.

Not to be overlooked in this unusual mix of passengers is the fact that it included 33 children, some only babes and toddlers. Five of the women were pregnant. Indeed, the Zamzam's passengers were not the ordinary. As for her crew, they were mostly Egyptian, headed by British officers.

With an air of eagerness and confidence, the Zamzam's crew and passengers had sailed south from the New York area that night of March 20, 1941. A few days later, however, innocence was shattered and hope was diminished as portholes and glass surfaces to the outside of the ship were painted black. In addition, no light in any form was to be allowed on deck, not even to light a cigarette. The Zamzam was now traveling in strictest black-out.

No amount of protests by the passengers could undo this new and frightening reality. Maybe the Zamzam was not such a safe, neutral ship, after all. For some, talk turned to practical measures of readiness in case the Zamzam was attacked. Even children made plans. The older boys, for example, figured out how they would rescue the chocolate candy bars in the commissary. Generally, it can be said that traveling in black-out deepened a sense of trust in God, knowing He has promised to be with His children even in the deep waters and dark moments of life.

The Atlantis
Photo taken by Life magazine.

And so, in total darkness, as if hiding from an enemy, the Zamzam left Recife, Brazil, on April 9, 1941, and began the long south-easterly voyage across the South Atlantic Ocean. Little did the Zamzam officers know that the Germans had been watching, lurking in the waters nearby, waiting for the right moment to attack.

That moment arrived at dawn on April 17 when the notorious German raider Atlantis, using the name Tamesis, attacked the Zamzam.

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