SS Gairsoppa
Encyclopedia
The SS Gairsoppa was a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
steam merchant ship that saw service during the Second World War. She sailed with several convoys, before joining Convoy SL 64. Running low on fuel, she left the convoy and headed for Galway
Galway
Galway or City of Galway is a city in County Galway, Republic of Ireland. It is the sixth largest and the fastest-growing city in Ireland. It is also the third largest city within the Republic and the only city in the Province of Connacht. Located on the west coast of Ireland, it sits on the...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, but was 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...
ed and sunk by a 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...
. The wreck of the ship was located in 2011, and it was announced that an operation to recover its cargo of silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
bullion, with an estimated value of £150 million, would begin in 2012.
Description
Gairsoppa was 399 in 3 in (121.69 m) long, with a beam of 52 in 2 in (15.9 m). She had a depth of 28 in 5 in (8.66 m) and a draught of 25 feet 8¼ inches (7.82 m). She was propelled by a 517 nhp triple expansion steam engine driving a single screw propeller. The engine was built by Palmers. It had cylinders of 27 inches (68.6 cm), 44 inches (111.8 cm) and 78 inches (198.1 cm) diameter by 48 inches (121.9 cm) stroke. It could propel the ship at 10.5 knots (20.6 km/h).Career
Ordered by the British Shipping Controller as SS War Roebuck from Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron CompanyPalmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company
Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company Limited, often referred to simply as Palmers, was a British shipbuilding company. The Company was based in Jarrow, in Northeast England and also had operations in Hebburn and Willington Quay on the River Tyne....
of Jarrow
Jarrow
Jarrow is a town in Tyne and Wear, England, located on the River Tyne, with a population of 27,526. From the middle of the 19th century until 1935, Jarrow was a centre for shipbuilding, and was the starting point of the Jarrow March against unemployment in 1936.-Foundation:The Angles re-occupied...
, she was taken over during construction by the British-India Steam Navigation Company
British-India Steam Navigation Company
British India Steam Navigation Company was formed in 1856 as the Calcutta and Burmah Steam Navigation Company. The company had been formed out of Mackinnon, Mackenzie & Co, a trading partnership of the Scots William Mackinnon and Robert Mackenzie, to carry mail between Calcutta and Rangoon. It...
, and completed as SS Gairsoppa. Gairsoppa was completed in November 1919. Her port of registry was Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
. She was allocated the United Kingdom Official Number 141924 and used the Code Letters
Code letters
Code letters were a method of identifying ships before the introduction of modern navigation aids. Later, with the introduction of radio, code letters were also used as radio callsigns.-History:...
GCZB from 1934.
Sinking
Attached to convoy SL-64 under master Gerald Hyland, she was returning from IndiaIndia
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
to Britain in 1941 with a cargo of silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
ingot
Ingot
An ingot is a material, usually metal, that is cast into a shape suitable for further processing. Non-metallic and semiconductor materials prepared in bulk form may also be referred to as ingots, particularly when cast by mold based methods.-Uses:...
s, pig iron
Pig iron
Pig iron is the intermediate product of smelting iron ore with a high-carbon fuel such as coke, usually with limestone as a flux. Charcoal and anthracite have also been used as fuel...
and tea
Tea
Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by adding cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant to hot water. The term also refers to the plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world...
. Joining the 8 knot convoy in Freetown
Freetown
Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone, a country in West Africa. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean located in the Western Area of the country, and had a city proper population of 772,873 at the 2004 census. The city is the economic, financial, and cultural center of...
, Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has an estimated population between 5.4 and 6.4...
, while in a heavy storm and running low on coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
off the coast of neutral Republic of Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
, Gairsoppa split off from the convoy and set course for Galway harbour.
She was circled by a German Focke-Wulf Fw 200
Focke-Wulf Fw 200
The Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor, also known as Kurier to the Allies was a German all-metal four-engine monoplane originally developed by Focke-Wulf as a long-range airliner...
aircraft at 08:00 on 16th February, and at 22.30 was spotted by U-101, under the command of Ernst Mengersen
Ernst Mengersen
Ernst Mengersen was German naval officer who reached the rank of Korvettenkapitän with the Kriegsmarine during World War II. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross...
. Torpedoed on the starboard side in No. 2 hold, she sank within 20 minutes (Note: German logbooks kept in German time state she sank at 00.08 hours on February 17, 1941). Her last reported position was 50°00′N 14°0′W, 300 miles (482.8 km) southwest of Galway Bay
Galway Bay
Galway Bay is a large bay on the west coast of Ireland, between County Galway in the province of Connacht to the north and the Burren in County Clare in the province of Munster to the south. Galway city is located on the northeast side of the bay. It is about long and from to in breadth...
. The wreck lies 4700 metres (15,419.9 ft) below the surface.
It was thought that three lifeboats launched, but only that in charge of the second officer R.H. Ayres with four Europeans and two Lascars on board made it away; the rest of the crew was lost. Ayres and his boat reached the Cornish
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
coast two weeks later at Caerthillian Cove. Two died trying to get ashore; they are buried at St. Wynwallow, Church Cove, Landewednack
Landewednack
Landewednack is a civil parish and a hamlet in Cornwall, United Kingdom. The hamlet is situated approximately ten miles south of Helston.Landewednack is the most southerly parish on the British mainland...
. Ayres was made an MBE
MBE
MBE can stand for:* Mail Boxes Etc.* Management by exception* Master of Bioethics* Master of Bioscience Enterprise* Master of Business Engineering* Master of Business Economics* Mean Biased Error...
for his attempts to rescue his fellow sailors, and lived until 1992.
Memorial
Eleven crew members are commemorated on Tower Hill MemorialTower Hill Memorial
The Tower Hill Memorial is a national war memorial on the south side of Trinity Square Gardens, just to the north of the Tower of London. It commemorates those from the Merchant Navy and fishing fleets who died during both world wars and have "no grave but the sea".The First World War memorial...
, Panel 51. Seventy lascars
Lascars
See also Lashkar, LaskarA lascar and was a sailor or militiaman from the Indian Subcontinent or other countries east of the Cape of Good Hope, employed on European ships from the 16th century until the beginning of the 20th century...
are commemorated on the Chittagong War Memorial.
Recovery
In 1989, the British government invited tenders to salvage the cargo and received just one, from Deepwater Recovery and Exploration Ltd.After a competitive tender, in January 2010 the government awarded a US company, Odyssey Marine Exploration
Odyssey Marine Exploration
Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc. is an American company engaged in the salvage of deep-water shipwrecks. Odyssey salvaged the US Civil War era shipwreck of the SS Republic in 2003 and recovered over 50,000 coins and 14,000 artifacts from the site nearly 1,700 feet deep...
, a two-year contract to find and salvage the 7,000,000 ounces of silver, which was worth £600,000 at the time of sinking, but hundreds of times that amount now.
Florida-based Odyssey Marine Exploration on September 26th, 2011 confirmed the identity and location of the Gairsoppa. The wreck of the ship was found on the sea floor at a depth of nearly 4,700 meters, 300 miles off the coast of Ireland. Footage of the Gairsoppa was provided by the Odyssey Marine Exploration company on September 26th, 2011 and published at the NYTimes.com It was reported that the silver to be recovered from the ship could have a value of £150 million at 2011 prices. Odyssey Marine indicated that the operation to recover the bullion would begin in the spring of 2012. Odyssey will retain 80% of the value of any recovered cargo, with the remainder going to HM Treasury
HM Treasury
HM Treasury, in full Her Majesty's Treasury, informally The Treasury, is the United Kingdom government department responsible for developing and executing the British government's public finance policy and economic policy...
.