Sister ship Twickenham. Photo www.photoship.co.uk
Built: 1940
Tonnage: 4,760 / 9,200 tons
Cargo: Aircraft, aircraft parts, ammunition, tractors and cars
Route: UK – Capetown - Alexandria
Sunk 17 JUN 41 by Raider Atlantis on pos. 07º 39”S 19º 12” W.
29 POW
22 Survivors
This 4.760-ton British freighter, bound from the UK to Alexandria via the Cape , carrying aircraft, aircraft parts, ammunition, tractors and cars, was followed for a day and attacked at nightfall with a warning shot across her bows. The RRR signal was heard and one shot was fired from the freighter’s 4-inch gun, which, although it fell short, prompted Rogge to open up with thirty-nine 5,9-inch and eleven 7.5mm shells, scoring two hits.
Her Captain ordered his crew to abandon ship while she was still under way, causing two of the lifeboats to be swamped as they hit the water fully laden. Once again the raider’s torpedoes proved unreliable, two missing completely and the third causing insufficient damage to sink the freighter, so that she had to be sunk by gunfire. According to Ulrich Mohr, “She erupted like a volcano!”
With his position now known to the British ashore, Rogge, anxious to get away, and having picked up 29 men, including the Captain and Chief Engineer, from one boat, but having failed to find the 17 men in the other, called off the search. Eight weeks later, the boat drifted ashore on the coast of Brazil, near Rio, abandoned, awash and empty. Trafalgar’s Second Officer Cameron and 16 others had deliberately avoided rescue and having found five more men on life rafts, and then drifted for eleven days, were luckily picked up by the SS Mahronda on June 28.
By Hilfskreuzer (Auxiliary Cruiser / Raider) - Atlantis (bismarck-class.dk)