Postcard of the RMS Llandovery Castle |
|
| Career | |
|---|---|
| Name: | RMS Llandovery Castle |
| Namesake: | Llandovery Castle |
| Operator: | Union-Castle Line |
| Builder: | Barclay Curle, Glasgow |
| Yard number: | 504 |
| Launched: | 3 September 1913 |
| Completed: | January 1914 |
| Fate: | Requisitioned, 1916 |
| Career | |
| Name: | HMHS Llandovery Castle |
| Commissioned: | 26 July 1916 |
| Fate: | Sunk by SM U-86, 27 June 1918 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Ocean liner / Hospital ship |
| Tonnage: | 10,639 GRT |
| Length: | 500 ft 1 in (152.43 m) |
| Beam: | 63 ft 3 in (19.28 m) |
| Propulsion: | Quadruple expansion steam engines 6,500 IHP Twin screws |
| Speed: | 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph) |
| Capacity: | As ocean liner: 429 passengers (213 1st class, 116 2nd class, and 100 3rd class) As hospital ship: 622 beds and 102 medical staff |
| Complement: | 258 |
HMHS Llandovery Castle, built in 1914 in Glasgow as RMS Llandovery Castle for the Union-Castle Line, 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, SM 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 as to what had happened. Among those lost were fourteen nursing sisters from across Canada.
After the war, in 1921, the captain of U-86, Lieutenant Helmut Patzig, and two of his lieutenants, Ludwig Dithmar and John Boldt, were arraigned for trial in Germany on war crimes. The case became famous as one of the "Leipzig trials". However, Patzig left the country and avoided extradition; and though Dithmar and Boldt were convicted and sentenced to four years in prison, they both escaped. Moreover, at the Court of Appeal, both lieutenants were acquitted on the grounds that the sole responsible was the captain.