SS Scoresby

Robert Thompson & Sons Ltd of Bridge Dockyard, Sunderland built Scoresby, completing her in January 1923.[1] She had eight corrugated furnaces with a combined grate area of 128 square feet (12 m²) that heated two 180 lb_f/in² single-ended boilers with a combined heating surface of 5,276 square feet (490 m²).[1] The boilers fed a three-cylinder triple expansion steam engine that was rated at 436 NHP and drove a single screw.[1] The engine was built by the North Eastern Marine Engineering Co, Ltd, also of Sunderland.[1]

Scoresby owner was Rowland and Marwood's Steam Ship Co, Ltd, who registered her in Whitby.[1] She was managed by another Rowland and Marwood's company, Headlam & Sons.[1]

By January 1940 Beatus was sailing in convoys.[6] That month she sailed from Liverpool with Convoy OB 77 as far as the coast of Canada, whence she continued to San Domingo.[6] In March she returned to the UK with a convoy of sugar, sailing via Halifax, Nova Scotia where she joined Convoy HX 28 that reached Liverpool on 2 April.[7]

In May 1940 Scoresby crossed the North Atlantic from Britain to Saint John, New Brunswick. She sailed with Convoy OA 150G from Southend,[8] which merged with Convoy OA 150G off Land's End to form Convoy OG 30 to Gibraltar.[9] In June she returned to the UK with a cargo of pit props, sailing via Halifax, Nova Scotia where she joined Convoy HX 53 that reached Liverpool on 10 July.[10]

Scoresby spent the rest of July and August in home waters, sailing in short-haul convoys around Britain. Then on 31 August she sailed from Methil in Scotland with Convoy OA 207 to Canada.[11]

Scoresby sailed from Corner Brook, Newfoundland with a cargo of 1,685 fathoms (3,082 m) of pit props bound for the Clyde in Scotland.[5] She sailed via St. Francis Harbour, Nova Scotia and Sydney, Nova Scotia, where she joined Convoy SC 7.[5] Her Master was Lawrence Zebedee Weatherill, and she carried the Convoy Vice-Commodore.[5] SC 7 left Sydney on 5 October. At first the convoy had only one escort ship, the Hastings-class sloop HMS Scarborough. A wolf pack of U-boats found the convoy on 16 October and quickly overwhelmed it, sinking many ships over the next few days.

At 0553 hrs on 17 October SC 7 was about 160 nautical miles (300 km) northwest of Rockall when German submarine U-48, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Heinrich Bleichrodt, fired three torpedoes at the convoy.[5] Two ships were hit and sunk: Scoresby and the French tanker Languedoc.[5] Captain Weatherill and his entire crew successfully abandoned ship, were rescued by the Flower-class corvette HMS Bluebell, and on 20 October were landed at Gourock in Scotland.[5]