Ships hit by U-boats


Hopetarn

British Motor merchant


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NameHopetarn
Type:Motor merchant
Tonnage5,231 tons
Completed1939 - Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson Ltd, Wallsend, Sunderland 
OwnerStott, Mann & Fleming Ltd, Newcastle-upon-Tyne 
HomeportNewcastle 
Date of attack29 May 1943Nationality:      British
 
FateSunk by U-198 (Werner Hartmann)
Position30° 50'S, 39° 32'E - Grid JA 1223
Complement44 (7 dead and 37 survivors).
Convoy
RouteCalcutta (7 May) - Colombo (16 May) - Durban - Table Bay - UK 
Cargo9000 tons of general cargo 
History Completed in January 1940 
Notes on event

At 19.37 hours on 29 May 1943 the unescorted Hopetarn (Master Stewart Wilson) was torpedoed and sunk by U-198 about 450 miles east of Durban. Six crew members and one gunner were lost. The master, 28 crew members and seven gunners were picked up two days later by the British merchant Nirvana and landed at Durban on 3 June. The second officer was taken prisoner by the U-boat, transferred to the German supply tanker Charlotte Schliemann on 26 June and landed at Batavia on 15 July. He was handed over to the Japanese and held in a camp on Java for the first four months, then on Sumatra until May 1945 and was liberated in Singapore at the end of the war.

 
On boardWe have details of 11 people who were on board


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