HMHS Llandovery Castle
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The Llandovery Castle built in 1914 in Glasgow, was a Canadian hospital ship torpedoed off southern Ireland on 27 June 1918 with the loss of 234 lives.
When the crew took to the lifeboats, U-86 surfaced, ran down all the lifeboats except one, and shot at the people in the water. Only the 24 people in the remaining lifeboat survived. They were rescued shortly afterwards and testified what had happened. The 234 others on board the Llandovery Castle drowned. Included in this figure were fourteen nursing sisters from across Canada who perished.
After the war, the captain of U-86, Lieutenant Helmut Patzig, and two of his lieutenants were arraigned for trial on war crimes, but Patzig disappeared, and though the two lieutenants were convicted and sentenced to four years in prison, they both escaped.
[edit] References
- http://uboat.net/history/wwi/part5.htm
- http://www.gwpda.org/naval/lcastl12.htm
- http://www.red-duster.co.uk/UNION16.htm
- http://www.gwpda.org/naval/rcnmed00.htm
