Wilhelmina
Photo Courtesy of Library of Contemporary History, Stuttgart
| Name | Wilhelmina | ||
| Type: | Steam merchant | ||
| Tonnage | 6.725 tons | ||
| Completed | 1909 - Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co, Newport News VA | ||
| Owner | Douglas & Ramsay, Glasgow | ||
| Homeport | Glasgow | ||
| Date of attack | 2 Dec, 1940 | Nationality:  British | |
| Fate | Sunk by U-94 (Herbert Kuppisch) | ||
| Position | 55.43N, 15.06W - Grid AM 4432 - See location on a map - | ||
| Complement | 39 (5 dead and 34 survivors). | ||
| Convoy | HX-90 | ||
| Route | New Westminster, British Columbia - Panama - Halifax (21 Nov) - Liverpool | ||
| Cargo | 2612 tons of general cargo, 2303 tons of fish and 1450 tons of wood pulp | ||
| History | In 1940 the laid up Wilhelmina of Matson Navigation Co, San Francisco CA was transferred to Britain and taken over by the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT). | ||
| Notes on loss | Between 22.16 and 22.17 hours on 2 Dec, 1940, U-94 fired three single torpedoes at a tanker and two steamers in convoy HX-90 265 miles west of Bloody Foreland and observed two hits on the tanker and one on a steamer identified as W. Hendrik, which was missed by a coup de grāce at 00.05 hours on 3 December. Only Wilhelmina (Master James Black Rue) in station #91 was hit and sunk in this attack. Four crew members and one gunner were lost. The master and 33 crew members were picked up by HMS Gentian (K 90) (LtCdr R.O. Yemans) and landed at Gourock. The British steam merchant W. Hendrik (4360 grt) in station #81 apparently thought that they had been hit when the other ship was torpedoed, sent a distress signal and stopped. She was in fact undamaged and continued with the convoy, but was bombed and sunk by a German aircraft on 3 December. | ||
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