SS Beatus | |
---|---|
Career (UK) | |
Name: | Beatus |
Owner: | Tempus Shipping Co, Ltd[1] |
Operator: | W.H. Seager & Co Ltd |
Port of registry: | Cardiff |
Builder: | Ropner Shipbuilding & Repairing Co Ltd, Stockton-on-Tees[1] |
Yard number: | 548[2] |
Completed: | March 1925[1] |
Out of service: | 18 October 1940[3] |
Identification: |
code letters KSHC (until 1933)[4] |
Fate: | sunk by torpedo, 18 October 1940[3] |
General characteristics | |
Class & type: | cargo steamship |
Tonnage: |
4,885 GRT[1] |
Length: | 390.0 feet (118.9 m)[1] p/p |
Beam: | 55.5 feet (16.9 m)[1] |
Draught: | 24 feet 6 3⁄4 inches (7.49 m)[1] |
Depth: | 26.4 feet (8.0 m)[1] |
Installed power: | 436 NHP[1] |
Propulsion: |
triple-expansion steam engine; single screw[1] |
Speed: | 11 knots (20 km/h)[2] |
Crew: | 37[3] |
Sensors and processing systems: | wireless direction finding (by 1937)[1] |
SS Beatus was a British cargo steamship that was built in 1925, sailed in a number of transatlantic convoys in 1940 and was sunk by a U-boat that October.
Building[]
Ropner Shipbuilding & Repairing Co Ltd of Stockton-on-Tees, England built Beatus, completing her in February 1925.[1] She had nine corrugated furnaces with a combined grate area of 190 square feet (18 m2) that heated three 180 lbf/in2 single-ended boilers with a combined heating surface of 7,500 square feet (697 m2).[1] The boilers fed a three-cylinder triple expansion steam engine that was rated at 436 NHP and drove a single screw.[1] The engine was built by Blair and Company, also of Stockton.[1]
Beatus was registered in Cardiff, managed by W.H. Seager & Co Ltd and owned by another of William Seager's companies, Tempus Shipping Co, Ltd.[1]
Second World War career[]
By early 1940 Beatus was sailing in convoys.[6] In February 1940 she joined Convoy SL-20 from Freetown, Sierra Leone to Liverpool with a cargo of wheat.[6] In May and June 1940 she brought a general cargo across the North Atlantic to the UK via Bermuda, where she joined Convoy BHX-46[7] and Halifax, Nova Scotia, where BHX-46 joined Convoy HX-46.[8] In late July Beatus was carrying a cargo of steel and pit props when she joined another HX convoy, HX-60, from Halifax, NS to Liverpool.[9] Between ocean voyages, Beatus sailed in a number of North Sea coastal convoys.
Convoy SC-7 and sinking[]
Early in October Beatus left Trois-Rivières, Quebec, carrying a cargo of 1,626 tons of steel, 5,874 tons of timber and a deck cargo of crated aircraft bound for Middlesbrough via the Tyne. Her Master was Wilfred Leslie Brett.[3] She went via Sydney, Nova Scotia, where she joined Convoy SC-7 bound for Liverpool.[10] SC-7 left Sydney on 5 October. At first the convoy had only one escort ship, the Hastings-class sloop HMS Scarborough. A wolf pack of U-boats found the convoy on 16 October and quickly overwhelmed it, sinking many ships over the next few days.
Between 2058 and 2104 hrs on 18 October SC-7 was about 100 miles west by south of Barra Head in the Outer Hebrides when U-46, commanded by Oberleutnant zur See Engelbert Endrass, attacked it. Endrass fired four torpedoes: one hit and sank the Swedish freighter SS Convallaria; another hit Beatus.[3] Frank Holding, Assistant Steward on Beatus, recalled:
"The next thing I heard was this explosion and a sound like breaking glass from down near the engine room. The ship stood still. When I went to the boat deck one of the lifeboats was already in the water, full of water... We knew we were sinking."[11]
Captain Brett and all 36 crew members survived, were rescued by a convoy escort, the Flower-class corvette HMS Bluebell, and were later landed at Gourock.[3]
References[]
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 Lloyd's Register, Steamers and Motorships. London: Lloyd's Register. 1937. http://www.plimsollshipdata.org/pdffile.php?name=37b0100.pdf. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Allen, Tony (5 November 2010). "SS Beatus (+1940)". The Wreck Site. http://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?12949. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Helgason, Guðmundur (1995-2013). "Beatus". Ships hit by U-boats. Guðmundur Helgason. http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/612.html. Retrieved 8 August 2013.
- ↑ Lloyd's Register, Steamers and Motorships. London: Lloyd's Register. 1933. http://www.plimsollshipdata.org/pdffile.php?name=33b0098.pdf. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
- ↑ Lloyd's Register, Steamers and Motorships. London: Lloyd's Register. 1934. http://www.plimsollshipdata.org/pdffile.php?name=34b0101.pdf. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Hague, Arnold. "Convoy SL.20". SL/MKS Convoy Series. Don Kindell, ConvoyWeb. http://www.convoyweb.org.uk/sl2/index.html?sl.php?convoy=20!~slmain. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
- ↑ Hague, Arnold. "Convoy BHX.46". BHX Convoy Series. Don Kindell, ConvoyWeb. http://www.convoyweb.org.uk/bhx/index.html?bhx.php?convoy=46!~bhxmain. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
- ↑ Hague, Arnold. "Convoy HX.46". HX Convoy Series. Don Kindell, ConvoyWeb. http://www.convoyweb.org.uk/hx/index.html?hx.php?convoy=46!~hxmain. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
- ↑ Hague, Arnold. "Convoy HX.60". HX Convoy Series. Don Kindell, ConvoyWeb. http://www.convoyweb.org.uk/hx/index.html?hx.php?convoy=60!~hxmain. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
- ↑ Hague, Arnold. "Convoy SC.7". SC Convoy Series. Don Kindell, ConvoyWeb. http://www.convoyweb.org.uk/sc/index.html?sc.php?convoy=7!~scmain. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
- ↑ Tildesley, Kate. "Voices from the Battle of the Atlantic". Second World War Experience Centre. http://www.war-experience.org/history/keyaspects/atlantic/default.asp#ref31.
Coordinates: 57°31′N 13°10′W / 57.517°N 13.167°W
The original article can be found at SS Beatus and the edit history here.