Arandora Star
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Arandora Star was a cruise ship that was sunk in controversial circumstances by a German U-boat during World War II.
[edit] History
She was built by Cammell Laird & Company, Limited for the Blue Star Line in 1927. She displaced 12,847 gross tonnage, was 535 feet long, accommodated 354 first class passengers, and cruised at a service speed of 16 knots. Initially named Arandora, she sailed from London to the east coast of South America from 1927 to 1928. She was later rebuilt to 15,501 grt as a full-time luxury cruise ship. She was also renamed Arandora Star to avoid confusion with Royal Mail ships (which typically bore names beginning and ending in 'A').
She was refitted during World War II and was assigned to transport Axis prisoners of war to Canada.
On July 2, 1940, having left Liverpool unescorted the day before, under the command of Edgar Wallace Moulton, she was bound for Canadian internment camps with nearly 1,500 German and Italian internees, including 86 POWs, being transported from Britain.
At 6 AM off the northwest coast of Ireland, she was struck by a torpedo from the German submarine U-47, commanded by U-Boat ace Günther Prien. It is assumed that U-47 mistook her grey wartime livery for that of an armed merchant cruiser. U-47 fired its single damaged torpedo at Arandora Star. All power was lost at once, and thirty five minutes after the torpedo impact, Arandora Star sank. Over eight hundred lives were lost.
[edit] Lifeboats
The modified cruise ship carried fourteen lifeboats, of which one was immediately destroyed upon torpedo impact, another could not be lowered off its winches, and two were damaged during their launch and thus useless. At least four of the remaining lifeboats were launched with a very small number of survivors. One other lifeboat was swamped and sank shortly after the sinking. Captain Otto Burfeind from the SS Adolph Woermann stayed aboard the sinking ship organizing the ship's evacuation until he was lost when it finally sank.
[edit] Rescue
After a brief scout by a Short Sunderland flying boat that was following their SOS distress-signal, the Canadian destroyer HMCS St. Laurent (H83) arrived to pick up the survivors. There were 586 survivors out of the 1,216 detainees. The sick were taken to Mearnskirk Hospital.
[edit] Citations
Arandora Star's Master, Edgar Wallace Moulton, was posthumously awarded the Lloyd's War Medal for Bravery at Sea, and the Canadian commander Harry DeWolf was cited for his heroism in the rescue operation, as was Captain Burfeind.
[edit] Wreckage and memorials
The wreck is located at . The bodies of those who perished on Arandora Star were carried by the sea to various points in Ireland and the Hebrides. There are a number of memorials at places where the ill-fated passengers were eventually laid to rest.
The most recent is that on the Scottish island of Colonsay, unveiled on 2 July 2005, on the sixty-fifth anniversary of the tragedy. As described in Hidden Europe magazine, it is dedicated "to the memory of Giuseppe Delgrosso and more than 800 others who perished with Arandora Star July 2nd 1940."
[edit] References
- Gardner, N. (2005) "Tragic Waters: The Sinking of the Arandora Star" Hidden Europe magazine, 4 September 2005, pp. 34-36.
- Miller, William H., Jr. Pictorial Encyclopedia of Ocean Liners, 1860-1994. Dover Maritime Books.
