Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2008
- Messages
- 8,994
Drama at Sea ...!
On Thursday, October 1st, 1942 the British steamer "City of Cairo" leaves ...
... under the command of 46-year-old captain William Alexander Rogerson ...
... Bombay for another crossing to Great Britain.
On board are 200 crew members, 101 passengers (including 28 women and 19 children) as well as ten artillerymen, who are part of the Defense Equipped Merchant Ships (DEMS) ...
... defend the ship in the event of an attack with gunfire.
In addition, a total of 7,422 tons of cargo are on board, including wood, wool, cotton, pig iron, manganese and 2,000 boxes of silver coins.
The "City of Cairo" is clearly a civilian ship, but it has a "Vickers-Armstrong" 3-pounder gun on the stern, which is to be used to defend against German submarines and trade troublemakers ("auxiliary cruisers") ...:
This armament makes the ship a legitimate target under international law!
On the evening of November 6, 1942, the "City of Cairo" was taken over by the German submarine U 68 ...
... under Corvette Captain Karl-Friedrich Merten ...
... sighted in the South Atlantic.
At 21:36 h, Merten launched a torpedo that hit the "City of Cairo" at the height of the aft mast.
Captain Rogerson immediately realizes that his ship is lost with this barn door-sized leak and immediately orders the lowering of the boats ...:
He also sends out an emergency call.
While the crew and passengers get into the boats, the steamer slowly begins to sink stern first.
To be on the safe side, U 68 forwards the "City of Cairo" emergency call to the radio station in Walvis Bay (Namibia) in the UK after Mertens recognized how many civilians were climbing into the boats.
Twenty minutes after the first attack, U 68 shoots a second torpedo at the "City of Cairo" ...
... causing the boilers to explode and the already battered "City of Cairo" to go down, tail first, within a minute ...:
Six people - two crew members and four passengers - are killed in the attack, including chief radio operator Harry Peever ...
... who had sent the SOS signal.
Everyone else can make it safely to the lifeboats.
After the ship sank, U 68 appears next to the lifeboats.
Commandant Merten used a megaphone to ask the 55 survivors in lifeboat No. 6 for the name of the ship, the cargo and whether there were prisoners of war on board.
Then he shows the people in the boats the course to the next country.
The closest point is the volcanic island of St. Helena, 480 miles away, known as the last exile of Emperor Napoleon ...:
... who had sent the SOS signal.
Everyone else can make it safely to the lifeboats.
After the ship sank, U 68 appears next to the lifeboats.
The African coast, on the other hand, is 1000 miles away, the Brazilian coast 2000 miles.
Merten calls out "Good night and sorry for sinking you!" And runs out. This sentence is also the title of a book about the fall of the "City of Cairo" ...:
The survivors of the "City of Cairo", a total of 305 people are distributed in six lifeboats, are now left to their own devices!
Although every lifeboat has a compass in its emergency equipment, there is only one sextant (that of the sixth officer Leslie Boundy) ...
... and only the "Rolex" watch from Captain Rogerson for navigation!
And the destination, the island of Sankt Helena, is so small that even a deviation of half a degree would mean sailing for miles past the island, not even seeing it!
Captain Rogerson calculates that Saint Helena can be reached in three weeks - which is why the water supply for each survivor is rationed to only 110 milliliters per day - in tropical heat!
Although the ship's officers try to keep the lifeboats together ...
Three of the lifeboats, including the one that Captain Rogerson has on board, will be on November 9th by the passenger steamer "Clan Alpine" ...
... found by the shipping company Clan Line, which takes the survivors on board and brings them to Sankt Helena.
Due to the lack of water, a number of passengers, especially women and children, are now dead!
There is no trace of the other three boats.
Another boat with 47 survivors was taken from the cargo ship "Bendoran" with dead and completely exhausted living on the evening of November 19th ...
... found the Ben Line under Captain William C. Wilson ...:
**continued next post**
On Thursday, October 1st, 1942 the British steamer "City of Cairo" leaves ...
... under the command of 46-year-old captain William Alexander Rogerson ...
... Bombay for another crossing to Great Britain.
On board are 200 crew members, 101 passengers (including 28 women and 19 children) as well as ten artillerymen, who are part of the Defense Equipped Merchant Ships (DEMS) ...
... defend the ship in the event of an attack with gunfire.
In addition, a total of 7,422 tons of cargo are on board, including wood, wool, cotton, pig iron, manganese and 2,000 boxes of silver coins.
The "City of Cairo" is clearly a civilian ship, but it has a "Vickers-Armstrong" 3-pounder gun on the stern, which is to be used to defend against German submarines and trade troublemakers ("auxiliary cruisers") ...:
This armament makes the ship a legitimate target under international law!
On the evening of November 6, 1942, the "City of Cairo" was taken over by the German submarine U 68 ...
... under Corvette Captain Karl-Friedrich Merten ...
... sighted in the South Atlantic.
At 21:36 h, Merten launched a torpedo that hit the "City of Cairo" at the height of the aft mast.
Captain Rogerson immediately realizes that his ship is lost with this barn door-sized leak and immediately orders the lowering of the boats ...:
He also sends out an emergency call.
While the crew and passengers get into the boats, the steamer slowly begins to sink stern first.
To be on the safe side, U 68 forwards the "City of Cairo" emergency call to the radio station in Walvis Bay (Namibia) in the UK after Mertens recognized how many civilians were climbing into the boats.
Twenty minutes after the first attack, U 68 shoots a second torpedo at the "City of Cairo" ...
... causing the boilers to explode and the already battered "City of Cairo" to go down, tail first, within a minute ...:
Six people - two crew members and four passengers - are killed in the attack, including chief radio operator Harry Peever ...
... who had sent the SOS signal.
Everyone else can make it safely to the lifeboats.
After the ship sank, U 68 appears next to the lifeboats.
Commandant Merten used a megaphone to ask the 55 survivors in lifeboat No. 6 for the name of the ship, the cargo and whether there were prisoners of war on board.
Then he shows the people in the boats the course to the next country.
The closest point is the volcanic island of St. Helena, 480 miles away, known as the last exile of Emperor Napoleon ...:
... who had sent the SOS signal.
Everyone else can make it safely to the lifeboats.
After the ship sank, U 68 appears next to the lifeboats.
The African coast, on the other hand, is 1000 miles away, the Brazilian coast 2000 miles.
Merten calls out "Good night and sorry for sinking you!" And runs out. This sentence is also the title of a book about the fall of the "City of Cairo" ...:
The survivors of the "City of Cairo", a total of 305 people are distributed in six lifeboats, are now left to their own devices!
Although every lifeboat has a compass in its emergency equipment, there is only one sextant (that of the sixth officer Leslie Boundy) ...
... and only the "Rolex" watch from Captain Rogerson for navigation!
And the destination, the island of Sankt Helena, is so small that even a deviation of half a degree would mean sailing for miles past the island, not even seeing it!
Captain Rogerson calculates that Saint Helena can be reached in three weeks - which is why the water supply for each survivor is rationed to only 110 milliliters per day - in tropical heat!
Although the ship's officers try to keep the lifeboats together ...
Three of the lifeboats, including the one that Captain Rogerson has on board, will be on November 9th by the passenger steamer "Clan Alpine" ...
... found by the shipping company Clan Line, which takes the survivors on board and brings them to Sankt Helena.
Due to the lack of water, a number of passengers, especially women and children, are now dead!
There is no trace of the other three boats.
Another boat with 47 survivors was taken from the cargo ship "Bendoran" with dead and completely exhausted living on the evening of November 19th ...
... found the Ben Line under Captain William C. Wilson ...:
**continued next post**
