Fort Bellingham
Fort Bellingham
| Name | Fort Bellingham | ||
| Type: | Steam merchant (Victory) | ||
| Tonnage | 7,153 tons | ||
| Completed | 1943 - Burrard Dry Dock Co, North Vancouver | ||
| Owner | Hain SS Co, London | ||
| Homeport | London | ||
| Date of attack | 26 Jan 1944 | Nationality:  British | |
| Fate | Sunk by U-957 ( Gerd Schaar) | ||
| Position | 73.25N, 25.10E - Grid AC 4562 - See location on a map - | ||
| Complement | 73 (36 dead and 37 survivors). | ||
| Convoy | JW-56A (straggler) | ||
| Route | London - Loch Ewe (12 Jan) - Akureyre, Iceland (21 Jan) - Murmansk | ||
| Cargo | 4900 tons of military and general stores, including 5 tons of cordite | ||
| History | Completed August 1943 for Canadian Government, lend-leased on bareboat charter to British Ministry of War Transport (MoWT). | ||
| Notes on loss | At 00.16 hours on 26 Jan, 1944, U-360 (Becker) fired a spread of three FAT torpedoes at the convoy JW-56A in the Barents Sea north of North Cape in 73°45N/24°48E (grid AC 4529) and heard three hits. In fact, only the ship of the convoy commodore Cmdr I.W. Whitehorn RN, the Fort Bellingham (Master James Ninian Maley) was hit and fell behind the convoy, where she was sunk by U-957 with a T-3 torpedo at 06.53 hours the same day. The master, the commodore, four naval staff members, 22 crew members and seven gunners were picked up by the HMS Offa (G 29) (LtCdr R.F. Leonard) and landed at Murmansk. Two crew members were taken prisoner by U-957. 18 crew members, 16 gunners and two naval staff members were lost. | ||
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