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RMS Nova Scotia was a 6,796 GRT UK transatlantic ocean liner and Royal Mail Ship. In World War II she was requisitioned as a troop ship. In 1942 a German submarine sank her in the Indian Ocean with the loss of 858 of the 1,052 people aboard. Many corpses were washed ashore in Natal.[13] The bodies of 120 Italian prisoners of war and internees were buried in a mass grave in the Hillary suburb of Durban, forming the nucleus of what became the Italian Military Cemetery there. In 1982 a substantial monument was erected on the grave. In 2008, the bodies were moved to the Pietermaritzburg Italian P.O.W. Church cemetery. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Nova_Scotia_(1926)
Sunk at 7:15 on 28 November by the German submarine U-177
RMS Nova Scotia was a 6,796 GRT UK transatlantic ocean liner and Royal Mail Ship. In World War II she was requisitioned as a troop ship. In 1942 a German submarine sank her in the Indian Ocean with the loss of 858 of the 1,052 people aboard.
Early in 1941 the Ministry of War Transport requisitioned Nova Scotia as a troop ship, and on 3 February she embarked 1,200 troops.[11] She joined a convoy from Britain to Freetown, Sierra Leone, where she arrived on 2 March.[11] Nova Scotia continued south, crossing the Equator on 12 March and reaching Cape Town, South Africa, on 22 March.[11]
In the autumn of 1942 Nova Scotia left Port Tewfik in Egypt and sailed down the Red Sea to Massawa[12] in British-occupied Eritrea, where she put US troops ashore and embarked Italian prisoners of war.[13] She also called at the British Colony of Aden[4] and then proceeded southwards unescorted, carrying over 750 Italian prisoners of war[12] and civilian internees and 3,000 bags of mail bound for Durban, South Africa.[4]
Nova Scotia had passed through the Mozambique Channel and was off the coast of Natal Province, South Africa, when at 7:15[4] on the morning of 28 November the German submarine U-177 hit her with three torpedoes.[12][13] Nova Scotia rolled to port,[13] caught fire[13] and sank by the bow within 10 minutes.[4] The crew managed to launch only one lifeboat; other survivors depended on life rafts or pieces of wreckage.[12] Those who were left in the water either drowned or were killed by sharks.[14]
In order to identify which ship it had just sunk, U-177 recovered two survivors.[4][12] They were interned Italian merchant sailors who explained that most of those aboard had been Italian internees.[4] Because of the Laconia Order that Admiral Dönitz had issued two months previously, the submarine's commander, Robert Gysae, withdrew U-177 from the area and radioed the Befehlshaber der U-Boote (BdU) for orders.[4] The BdU ordered him to leave survivors in the water and continue on patrol.[4] The BdU requested help from Portugal, which sent the frigate NRP Afonso de Albuquerque from Lourenço Marques[4] in neighbouring Mozambique.
Afonso de Albuquerque reached the area on 29 November.[12] Five survivors fired a distress flare and were rescued by the frigate.[12] The next day Afonso de Albuquerque found herself surrounded by hundreds of floating corpses.[12] The frigate rescued 130 Italian internees, 42 guards, 17 crew members, three military and naval personnel, one DEMS gunner and one passenger.[4] 858 people were lost: 650 Italian internees, 96 crew members, 88 South African guards, 10 DEMS gunners, eight military and naval personnel, five passengers, and Nova Scotia's master.[4]
Two further survivors reached safety. One was rescued on the third day after the attack; the other was an Italian who drifted on a liferaft for a fortnight until he came ashore at Mtunzini in Natal.[12] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Nova_Scotia_(1926)}
Survivors:
Resources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Nova_Scotia_(1926)
- https://samilhistory.com/2016/01/09/u177-and-the-worst-maritime-los...
- https://www.fad.co.za/Resources/Nova/novascotia.htm
- http://natalia.org.za/Files/23-24/Natalia%20v23-24%20article%20p76-...