The Gas light & Coke Company of London was the world's first public gas works. They moved much of their product by ship, and during the two wars several were lost. During World War II their first loss was SS Whitemantle. She had been built by Wood, Skinner & Company in Newcastle in 1920 and was 1,692 tons. On October 22, 1939 the ship was en route from the River Tyne to London with a load of coal, while approaching the Humber she ran afoul of a minefield laid by the German destroyers Z-16 Friedrich Eckholdt, Z-17 Diether von Roeder, Z-18 Hans Lüdemann, Z-19 Hermann Künne, Z-20 Karl Galster and Z-21 Wilhelm Heidkamp. They were under the command of Rear Admiral Günther Lütjens, who at the time was Führer der Torpedoboote. The mines had been laid on Oct. 17-18 and were apparently undetected until Whitemantle was sunk. Only five of the nineteen man crew were picked up, all with varying degrees of injuries, none of the remaining fourteen men survived.