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.