SS Assyrian
Encyclopedia
The SS Assyrian was a steam merchant ship, originally German-built, which sailed under the British flag during the Second World War.

Early years

She was originally built by Blohm + Voss
Blohm + Voss
Blohm + Voss , is a German shipbuilding and engineering works. It is a subsidiary of ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems; there were plans to sell 80% of Blohm + Voss to Abu Dhabi Mar Group, but talks collapsed in July 2011.-History:It was founded on April 5, 1877, by Hermann Blohm and Ernst Voss as a...

, Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...

 as the German motor merchant Fritz, in 1914. She served during the First World War with the Woermann Line, but she was designated as a war reparations
World War I reparations
World War I reparations refers to the payments and transfers of property and equipment that Germany was forced to make under the Treaty of Versailles following its defeat during World War I...

 ship in 1919 and was acquired by the British shipping firm Ellerman & Papayanni Lines Ltd
Ellerman Lines
Ellerman Lines was a cargo and passenger shipping company that operated from the late nineteenth century and into the twentieth century. It was founded in the late nineteenth century, and continued to expand with the acquisition of smaller shipping lines until it became one of the largest shipping...

, of Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

 in 1920. They renamed her Assyrian and homeported her in Liverpool. They converted her to a steam merchant in 1925.

With the convoys

During the Second World War she was used to carry supplies to the UK, often travelling in convoy to protect against German U-boat
U-boat
U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...

 attacks. She took part in a number of these convoys, sailing to and from Liverpool to destinations such as Gibraltar
Gibraltar
Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...

 and Bermuda
Bermuda
Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...

. She joined her last convoy, SC-7
Convoy SC-7
SC-7 was the code name for a large Allied World War II convoy of 35 merchant ships and six escorts which sailed eastbound from Sydney, Nova Scotia for Liverpool and other United Kingdom ports on 5 October 1940. While crossing the Atlantic, the convoy was intercepted by one of the German Navy's...

 which departed Sydney, Nova Scotia
Sydney, Nova Scotia
Sydney is a Canadian urban community in the province of Nova Scotia. It is situated on the east coast of Cape Breton Island and is administratively part of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality....

 on 5 October 1940. She was used as the convoy commodore
Convoy commodore
A Convoy Commodore was the title of a civilian put in charge of the good order of the merchant ships in the British convoys used during World War II. Usually the convoy commodore was a retired naval officer or a senior merchant captain drawn from the RNVR...

's ship, and came under the command of retired vice admiral
Vice Admiral
Vice admiral is a senior naval rank of a three-star flag officer, which is equivalent to lieutenant general in the other uniformed services. A vice admiral is typically senior to a rear admiral and junior to an admiral...

 Lachlan Mackinnon
Lachlan Donald Ian Mackinnon
Lachlan Donald Ian Mackinnon, CB, CVO was a Royal Navy officer, especially noted for his role as a convoy commodore during the Second World War.-Family and early career:...

, with her master
Captain (nautical)
A sea captain is a licensed mariner in ultimate command of the vessel. The captain is responsible for its safe and efficient operation, including cargo operations, navigation, crew management and ensuring that the vessel complies with local and international laws, as well as company and flag...

 as Reginald Sanderson Kearon. She had arrived in Sydney from New Orleans and carried a cargo of 3,700 tons of grain.

Convoy SC-7 and sinking

The convoy initially had only a single escort, the sloop
Sloop-of-war
In the 18th and most of the 19th centuries, a sloop-of-war was a warship with a single gun deck that carried up to eighteen guns. As the rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above, this meant that the term sloop-of-war actually encompassed all the unrated combat vessels including the...

 HMS Scarborough
HMS Scarborough (U25)
HMS Scarborough was a Hastings-class sloop of the Royal Navy launched in 1930. She saw active service during the Second World War, especially as a convoy escort in the North Atlantic.-Construction and commissioning:...

. The convoy was overwhelmed by U-boat
U-boat
U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...

s operating the new 'wolf pack' tactics. On 19 October, as the convoy approached the British Isles
British Isles
The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and...

, a U-boat was spotted 100 yards ahead. The Assyrian went full ahead to ram her, for the first time made 10 knots. She chased the enemy ship for 40 minutes, but was unable to bring any of her small guns to bear. The U-boat eventually escaped, leaving the Assyrian ahead of the convoy, with no escorts around. She was sighted by under Fritz Frauenheim and at 01.22 hours he fired three bow torpedo
Torpedo
The modern torpedo is a self-propelled missile weapon with an explosive warhead, launched above or below the water surface, propelled underwater towards a target, and designed to detonate either on contact with it or in proximity to it.The term torpedo was originally employed for...

es at the convoy, by then 102 miles west by north of Barra Head
Barra Head
Barra Head, also known as Berneray , is the southernmost of the Outer Hebrides in Scotland. Within the Outer Hebrides, it forms part of the Barra Isles archipelago. Originally, Barra Head only referred to the southernmost headland of Berneray but is now a common name for the entire island...

, Outer Hebrides
Outer Hebrides
The Outer Hebrides also known as the Western Isles and the Long Island, is an island chain off the west coast of Scotland. The islands are geographically contiguous with Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, one of the 32 unitary council areas of Scotland...

, followed two minutes later by a stern torpedo. He was later to report four hits and four ships sunk.

However two of the bow torpedoes missed, with the third hitting the Assyrian on the starboard side, stopping the engines and putting out her lights. The stern torpedo went on to hit the SS Soesterberg
SS Soesterberg
The SS Soesterberg was a Dutch steam merchant ship that saw service during the Second World War. She sailed with several convoys, before joining the ill-fated convoy SC-7...

. Both of the Assyrian’s boats were damaged in the explosion and most of the surviving crew took to the life-rafts. A sinking merchantman drifted down upon the Assyrian, her pit prop
Pit prop
A pit prop or mine prop is a length of lumber used to prop up the roofs of tunnels in coal mines.Canada traditionally supplied pit props to the British market...

s rolling off and further damaging the ship and sinking one of the life-rafts which had been launched. A small group including the ship's master, the Chief Officer
Chief officer
A chief officer can refer to any of various leaders:In the military, it can refer to certain non-commissioned members:*Chief Petty Officer*Chief Warrant OfficerMarine occupation:*Chief Mate...

 and the commodore were stranded aboard the sinking ship. They set to building a raft out of whatever they could find and launched it as the ship went down. The raft fell to bits as it hit the water, but most of the occupants managed to cling to pieces of wreckage.

Out of a total complement of 51, fifteen crew members and two naval staff members were lost. The master, the commodore, three naval staff members, 20 crew members and nine passengers were picked up by the sloop and landed at Liverpool. The Assyrian’s master, Reginald Sanderson Kearon, was awarded the Lloyd's War Medal for Bravery at Sea
Lloyd's War Medal for Bravery at Sea
The Lloyd's War Medal for Bravery at Sea is one of the four Lloyd's Medal types bestowed by Lloyd's of London. In 1939, with the coming of World War II, Lloyd's set up a committee to find means of honouring seafarers who performed acts of exceptional courage at sea, and this resulted in the...

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