Automedon was Achilles' charioteer in Homer's Iliad. This was the first of three Blue Funnel Line ships to be named after him. The second was a motor ship launched in 1949 and scrapped in 1972.[2] The third was a motor ship launched in 1948 as Cyclops, renamed Automedon in 1975 and scrapped in 1977.[3]
A new class of Blue Funnel Line ships
Blue Funnel Line lost 16 ships in the First World War. Thereafter the company replaced its fleet, mainly with a class of 11 new steamships of about 460ft (140m)registered length, 58ft (18m)beam and tonnage of about 7,500GRT, all launched between 1920 and 1923.[4]
Palmers launched Automedon on 4 December 1921 and completed her in March 1922. Like most members of the class she was powered by two steam turbines, which drove a single screw via double reduction gearing. Between them her turbines developed 6,000 SHP and gave her a speed of 14.5 knots (27km/h).[5] Her holds had refrigerated space for 111,000 cubic feet (3,143m3) of cargo.[7]
In the Second World War Automedon mostly sailed unescorted. When the war began in September 1939 she was en route from Britain to Australia via the Suez Canal and Colombo. She returned by the same route, reaching Liverpool on 3 March 1940.[10]
On 31 March 1940 Automedon left Liverpool for Australia, but this time sailed via Freetown in Sierra Leone and Durban in South Africa. She returned by the same route, reaching Liverpool on 21 August.[10]
Final voyage and loss
On 25 September 1940 Automedon left Liverpool for the Far East. She sailed with Convoy SL 42, which took her as far as Freetown. She then sailed unescorted to Durban, where she was in port from 25 to 29 October.[10] Her cargo included crated aircraft, motor cars, spare parts, liquor, cigarettes, bagged mail, and food including frozen meat, bound for Penang, Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai.[citation needed]
At about 0700 hrs on 11 November 1940, the German auxiliary cruiserAtlantis intercepted Automedon about 250 nautical miles (460km) northwest of Sumatra, approaching on a heading that would bring the two ships close together. At 0820 hrs when Automedon was less than 5,000 metres (16,000ft) away, Atlantis raised her German ensign and uncovered her guns. Automedon at once responded by transmitting a distress signal, but managed to send only "RRR – Automedon – 0416N" ("RRR" meant "under attack by armed raider") before Atlantisjammed her transmission.[11]
Atlantis then opened fire from a range of 2,000 metres (6,600ft), four salvos hitting Automedon amidships. The first shells destroyed Automedon's bridge, killing everyone present except her helmsman, Stan Hugill. Her Master, William Brown Ewan, was on the bridge and was among those killed. Automedon was still steaming full ahead and a crewman tried to reach the DEMS gun on her stern to return fire. Atlantis fired a final salvo which hit the ship, killing the would-be gunner and stopping Automedon.[citation needed]
Automedon's chief officer met Atlantis' boarding party when they came aboard. Ulrich Mohr of Atlantis later said Automedon was in the worst condition he had ever seen; the close-range shelling had destroyed virtually every structure above the hull, and nothing was left undamaged. Six crew members had been killed and 12 wounded. Six of the wounded were at once transferred to Atlantis for medical treatment.[11]
After passenger Mrs. Violet Ferguson asked that her tea-set be rescued, the strongroom was discovered. A thorough search of Automedon found 15 bags of top secret mail for the British Far East Command, including a large quantity of decoding tables, Fleet orders, gunnery instructions, and Naval Intelligence reports. The most significant find was a small green bag found in the chart room near the bridge. Marked "Highly Confidential" and equipped with holes to help it to sink if it had to be thrown overboard, the bag contained an envelope addressed to Robert Brooke Popham, Commander-in-Chief of the British Far East Command. The envelope contained documents prepared by the British War Cabinet's Planning Division which included their evaluations of the strength and status of British land and naval forces in the Far East, a detailed report on Singapore's defences, and information on the roles to be played by Australian and New Zealand forces in the Far East in the event that Japan entered the war on the Axis side.[12][13]
Captain Bernhard Rogge of Atlantis set a time limit of three hours in which 31 British and 56 Chinese crewmen, three passengers, their possessions, all the frozen meat and food and the ship's papers and bags of mail were transferred. He was concerned as another ship observing the two stationary vessels would quickly guess what was happening and send a radio message before Atlantis could take any action. Automedon was judged too badly damaged to tow, so at 1507 hrs she was sunk by scuttling charges. Her survivors eventually reached Bordeaux aboard the captured Norwegian tanker Storstad.[citation needed]
Captain Rogge realised the importance of the intelligence material he had captured from Automedon and quickly transferred the documents to the ship Ole Jacob, captured earlier, ordering KKpt Paul Kamenz and six of his crew to take charge of the ship and take the captured material to the German representatives in Japan.[14]
On 4 December 1940 Ole Jacob reached Kobe, Japan. The mail reached the German embassy in Tokyo on 5 December, and was then hand-carried to Berlin via the Trans-Siberian railway. A copy was given to the Japanese Government, and some argue that it influenced the Japanese decision to start what it called the "Greater East Asia War".[15] After Japan's entry into the war and the fall of Singapore, Captain Rogge was awarded an ornate katana on 27 April 1943. Japan only ever presented three such swords to foreigners, the others being to Hermann Göring and Erwin Rommel.[16]
Duffy, James P (2005). Hitler's Secret Pirate Fleet: The Deadliest Ships of World War II. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN0-8032-6652-9.
Le Fleming, HM (1961). Ships of the Blue Funnel Line. Southampton: Adlard Coles Ltd.
The German auxiliary cruiser Atlantis, known to the Kriegsmarine as Schiff 16 and to the Royal Navy as Raider-C, was a converted German Hilfskreuzer, or merchant or commerce raider of the Kriegsmarine, which, in World War II, travelled more than 161,000 km (100,000 mi) in 602 days, and sank or captured 22 ships with a combined tonnage of 144,384. Atlantis was commanded by Kapitän zur See Bernhard Rogge, who received the Oak Leaves to the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. She was sunk on 22 November 1941 by the British cruiser HMS Devonshire.
Alfred Holt and Company, trading as Blue Funnel Line, was a UK shipping company that was founded in 1866 and operated merchant ships for 122 years. It was one of the UK's larger shipowning and operating companies, and as such had a significant role in the country's overseas trade and in the First and Second World Wars.
SS Antenor was a UK steam turbine passenger and refrigerated cargo liner launched in 1924. She was the third of five ships to bear the name.
SS Patroclus was a UK steam turbine passenger and refrigerated cargo liner launched in 1923. She was the third of five ships to bear the name.
SS Sarpedon was a UK steam turbine passenger and refrigerated cargo liner launched in 1923. She was the fourth of six ships to bear the name.
HMS Hector was a UK steam turbine passenger and refrigerated cargo liner launched in 1924. She was the fourth of six civilian ships to bear the name.
SS Monte Nevoso was a cargo steamship that was launched in 1920 in England, owned in Italy, and wrecked in 1932 in the North Sea off the coast of Norfolk.
SS Meriones was a Blue Funnel Line refrigerated cargo steamship. She was launched in 1921 on the River Tyne as one of a class of 11 ships to replace many of Blue Funnel's losses in the First World War.
SMS Leopard was a British cargo steamship that was built in 1912 as Yarrowdale, captured in 1916 by the Imperial German Navy, converted into a commerce raider in Germany, and sunk with all hands by the Royal Navy in 1917.
SS Almeda Star, originally SS Almeda, was a British turbine steamer of the Blue Star Line. She was both an ocean liner and a refrigerated cargo ship, providing a passenger service between London and South America and carrying refrigerated beef from South America to London. She was built in 1926, significantly enlarged in 1935 and sunk by enemy action in 1941.
SS Hertford was a refrigerated cargo steamship that was launched in Germany in 1917, seized by the United Kingdom in 1920 as World War I reparations, and sunk by a U-boat in 1942 with the loss of four members of her crew.
HMS Agamemnon was originally the Blue Funnel Line refrigerated cargo ship Agamemnon. She was built in 1929, traded between the UK and the Far East, and was scrapped in 1963. During the Second World War she was converted into an auxiliary minelayer in 1940, and then into an amenities ship in 1943.
HMS Menestheus was originally the Blue Funnel Line refrigerated cargo ship Menestheus. She was built in 1929, and traded between the UK and the Far East. She was an auxiliary minelayer from 1940 to 1943. In 1945, during the Second World War, she was converted into an amenities ship. She was scrapped in 1953 after being gutted by fire.
SS Cyclops was a British cargo steamship of Alfred Holt and Company. She was built in Glasgow in 1906, served in both the First and Second World Wars and survived two German submarine attacks in 1917. A German submarine sank her in January 1942 off the coast of Nova Scotia, killing 87 of the men aboard her. This was the first attack of the Kriegsmarine's Unternehmen Paukenschlag to destroy Allied merchant shipping in the Western Atlantic.
SS Zamzam was a steam ocean liner that was launched in 1909 in Ireland and scuttled in 1941 in the South Atlantic.
Ulrich Mohr was a German naval officer and the adjutant on the Kriegsmarine auxiliary cruiser Atlantis during the Second World War, where one of his functions was to board captured ships and search for secret papers that might be of use to the German war effort.
MV Waimarama was a UK refrigerated cargo liner. She was built in Northern Ireland for Shaw, Savill & Albion Line and launched in 1938. She carried perishable foods, particularly meat, from New Zealand to the United Kingdom.
SS Teiryu Maru was a steam cargo ship that was launched in England in 1914 as Northwestern Miller. Furness, Withy & Co managed her until 1927, when Norddeutscher Lloyd bought her and renamed her Augsburg.
SS Potaro was a refrigerated cargo steamship that was built in Belfast in 1904, and captured and scuttled in the First World War in 1915.
MV Deucalion was a Blue Funnel Line refrigerated cargo ship that was built in England in 1930 and sunk in the Second World War in 1942. She survived being damaged in the Liverpool Blitz in December 1940 and took part in two Malta convoys to relieve the Siege of Malta. She survived air attacks during the first of these, Operation Substance, in July 1941 but was lost on her second Malta Convoy, Operation Pedestal, in August 1942. This was the third of five Blue Funnel ships to be named after Deucalion, a mythological king of Thessaly in Ancient Greece.
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