Wilfred Berridge

Name Shirvan
Type: Steam tanker
Tonnage 6,017 tons
Completed 1925 - Sir W.G. Armstrong, Whitworth & Co Ltd, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Owner Baltic Trading Co Ltd, London
Homeport London
Date of attack 10 Nov 1944 Nationality: British

Fate Sunk by U-300 (Fritz Hein)
Position 64° 08'N, 22° 50'W - Grid AE 4753
Complement 45 (18 dead and 27 survivors).
Convoy UR-142
Route Bowling - Loch Ewe - Hvalfjordur, Iceland
Cargo 8050 tons of gas oil
History Completed in December 1925
Notes on event
At 12.07 hours on 10 November 1944 the Shirvan (Master Edward Fermor Pattenden) from the storm scattered convoy UR-142 was hit by a LUT torpedo from U-300 off Skagi, Iceland and caught fire. The U-boat had fired five minutes earlier a first LUT torpedo that was a tube runner and detonated near the ship after being ejected. At 14.17 hours, a coup de grâce was fired that was first also a tube runner but then hit the tanker after a coup de grâce at 13.36 hours malfunctioned after launching. The Godafoss from the same convoy stopped against orders to pick up survivors from the tanker, but was also torpedoed by the U-boat at 14.59 hours. The master, 15 crew members and two gunners were lost. 20 crew members and seven gunners were picked up by HMS Reward (W 164) and the Norwegian armed trawler HMNoS Honningsvaag (4.277) and landed at Reykjavik.

The abandoned wreck of Shirvan was still afloat in the evening and the British tug Empire Wold left Reykjavik to assist the ship, but was reported missing presumed lost by enemy action. No U-boat attack correspond with the loss of the vessel and she probably fell victim to the stormy sea. The tanker foundered the next day in 64°29N/23°04W. Her wreck was found during oceanic researches from the company Hafmyndir ehf. in cooperation with scientists from University of Iceland on 28 July 2010. They used a small Icelandic-made research submarine and found the ship to lie in three pieces at a depth of 100 meters in roughly the reported position. (courtesy of uboat.net)

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