Empire Leopard
Photo Courtesy of Library of Contemporary History, Stuttgart
| Name | Empire Leopard | ||
| Type: | Steam merchant | ||
| Tonnage | 5.676 tons | ||
| Completed | 1917 - Skinner & Eddy Corp, Seattle WA | ||
| Owner | Maritime Shipping & Trading Co Ltd, Cardiff | ||
| Homeport | London | ||
| Date of attack | 2 Nov, 1942 | Nationality:  British | |
| Fate | Sunk by U-402 (Baron Siegfried von Forstner) | ||
| Position | 52.26N, 45.22W - Grid AJ 8658 - See location on a map - | ||
| Complement | 42 (39 dead and 3 survivors). | ||
| Convoy | SC-107 | ||
| Route | Botwood - St.Johns (29 Oct) - Sydney - Belfast - Avonmouth | ||
| Cargo | 7410 tons of zinc concentrates and munitions | ||
| History | Launched as British War Flame, completed December 1917 as American West Haven for US Shipping Board, Seattle; 1918/19 in the US Navy for the Naval Overseas Transportation Service; 1929 renamed Marian Otis Chandler for Los Angeles SS Co, Los Angeles; 1935 sold to Matson SS Co, Los Angeles, 1938 renamed Onemea for Matson Navigation Co, San Francisco. 1940 given to Britain and was renamed Empire Leopard by the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT). | ||
| Notes on loss | At 08.03 hours on 2 Nov, 1942, U-402 fired torpedoes at the convoy SC-107 about 500 miles east of Belle Isle and sank two ships, the Empire Leopard and Empire Antelope. The master, 31 crew members and seven gunners from the Empire Leopard (Master John Evan Evans) were lost. Three crew members were picked up by the British rescue ship Stockport (Master Thomas Ernest Fea OBE) and landed at Reykjavik on 8 November. | ||
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