SS Beatus
History | |
---|---|
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Name | Beatus |
Owner | Tempus Shipping Co, Ltd[3] |
Operator | W.H. Seager & Co Ltd |
Port of registry | Cardiff |
Builder | Ropner Shipbuilding & Repairing Co Ltd, Stockton-on-Tees[3] |
Yard number | 548[4] |
Launched | 23 January 1925 |
Completed | March 1925[3] |
Out of service | 18 October 1940[5] |
Identification |
|
Fate | sunk by torpedo, 18 October 1940[5] |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | cargo steamship |
Tonnage | |
Length | 390.0 feet (118.9 m)[3] p/p |
Beam | 55.5 feet (16.9 m)[3] |
Draught | 24 feet 6+3⁄4 inches (7.49 m)[3] |
Depth | 26.4 feet (8.0 m)[3] |
Installed power | 436 NHP[3] |
Propulsion | |
Speed | 11 knots (20 km/h)[4] |
Crew | 37[5] |
Sensors and processing systems | wireless direction finding (by 1937)[3] |
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.[3] 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).[3] The boilers fed a three-cylinder triple expansion steam engine that was rated at 436 NHP and drove a single screw.[3] The engine was built by Blair and Company, also of Stockton.[3]
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.[3]
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.[5] 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 Template:Sclass- HMS Scarborough. A wolfpack 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 hours on 18 October, SC 7 was about 100 miles (160 km) 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.[5] 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 Template:Sclass- HMS Bluebell, and were later landed at Gourock.[5]
References
- ^
Lloyd's Register, Steamers and Motorships (PDF). London: Lloyd's Register. 1933. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
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Lloyd's Register, Steamers and Motorships (PDF). London: Lloyd's Register. 1934. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
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(help) - ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Lloyd's Registry 1937.
- ^ a b
Allen, Tony (5 November 2010). "SS Beatus (+1940)". The Wreck Site. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
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Helgason, Guðmundur (1995–2013). "Beatus". Ships hit by U-boats. Guðmundur Helgason. Retrieved 8 August 2013.
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(help) - ^ a b
Hague, Arnold. "Convoy SL.20". SL/MKS Convoy Series. Don Kindell, ConvoyWeb. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
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Hague, Arnold. "Convoy BHX.46". BHX Convoy Series. Don Kindell, ConvoyWeb. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
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Hague, Arnold. "Convoy HX.46". HX Convoy Series. Don Kindell, ConvoyWeb. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
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(help) - ^
Hague, Arnold. "Convoy HX.60". HX Convoy Series. Don Kindell, ConvoyWeb. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
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(help) - ^
Hague, Arnold. "Convoy SC.7". SC Convoy Series. Don Kindell, ConvoyWeb. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
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(help) - ^
Tildesley, Kate. "Voices from the Battle of the Atlantic". Second World War Experience Centre. Archived from the original on 17 July 2011.
{{cite web}}
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(help)
- Lloyd's Register, Steamers and Motorships (PDF). London: Lloyd's Register. 1937. Retrieved 9 August 2013.