Daily Event for September 27, 2012

On Feb. 1, 1915 at Irvine's shipyard in West Hartlepool the freighter Swan River was launched for the Houlder Brothers. She was 384' long [PP] and registered at 4,724 tons. On September 27, 1917 she was in the Mediterranean about 27 miles from Oran, Algeria sailing in ballast when she was became the victim of SMS
U-39 and Kapitänleutnant Walter Forstmann.

Swan River was the only ship sunk by Forstmann in the month of Sept. of 1917, a slow month for a man who sank almost 400,000 tons of shipping during his career. None of the crew were lost, but the exact details of the sinking and how the crew made land are unknown to me.
© 2012 Michael W. Pocock
MaritimeQuest.com




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