Mercator
| Name | Mercator | ||
| Type: | Steam merchant | ||
| Tonnage | 4.260 tons | ||
| Completed | 1904 - Furness Withy Co Ltd, West Hartlepool | ||
| Owner | Finska Ångfartygs A/B, Helsinki | ||
| Homeport | Helsinki | ||
| Date of attack | 1 Dec, 1939 | Nationality:  Finnish | |
| Fate | Sunk by U-21 (Fritz Frauenheim) | ||
| Position | 57.25N, 01.35W - Grid AN 1895 - See location on a map - | ||
| Complement | 36 (1 dead and 35 survivors). | ||
| Convoy | |||
| Route | Buenos Aires - Leith - Helsinki | ||
| Cargo | General cargo, including 1270 tons of coffee, maize, wheat, linseed, casein and groundnut meal | ||
| History | Built as Manchester Mariner, 1925 renamed Mercator | ||
| Notes on loss | At 04.53 hours on 1 Dec, 1939, the unescorted Mercator (Master Gunnar Nilsson-Ollandt) was hit near the foremast by one G7a torpedo from U-21 and sank in six minutes off Buchan Ness. One crew member was lost. She had been spotted 13 minutes earlier with lights set, but without visible national markings. The Peterhead lifeboat Julia Park Barry of Glasgow and the motor fishing vessel Bread Winner put out from Peterhead to rescued the survivors. 19 men in a lifeboat and a raft lashed alongside it with four others were picked up by the fishing vessel three miles east-northeast of Peterhead and brought to the port. The twelve remaining survivors in a second boat rowed towards shore and made landfall at Boddam during the morning. | ||
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