HMHS Llandovery Castle

HMHS Llandovery Castle

courtesy theheritageportal.co.za
Two German U-Boats grounded near Falmouth in 1921. The one nearer to the camera is UB 86
History
Name	HMHS Llandovery Castle
Owner	Union-Castle Mail Steam Ship Co. Ltd., London
Builder	Barclay, Curle & Co. Ltd., Glasgow
Yard number	504
Launched	4 Sep 1913
Completed	January 1914
In service	1914
Out of service	27 Jun 1918
Fate	Torpedoed and sunk
General characteristics
Type	passenger / cargo
Tonnage	10,639 tons
Length	500 ft 1 in (152.43 m)
Beam	63 ft 3 in (19.28 m)
Propulsion	twin screw
Speed	15 knots (27.78 km/h)
Capacity	crew of 258

Remarks

Designed to carry 429 passengers. Converted as a hospital ship in 1916, she could service 622 beds with 102 medical staff. She was chased by a U-Boat off cape Finisterre on 8 Jun 1916, but her speed saved the day. The sinking of the Llandovery Castle by U-Boat U-86 116 miles west of Fastnet Light off southern Ireland on 27 June 1918 is considered one of the worst atrocities of the war. She was employed as a hospital ship enroute from Halifax to Liverpool. Lights illuminating her Red Cross were on when she was torpedoed without warning.

Firing at a hospital ship was against international law and the standing orders of the Imperial German Navy. The captain of U-86, Helmut Brümmer-Patzig, sought to destroy the evidence of torpedoing the ship. When the crew took to the lifeboats, U-86 surfaced, ran down all but one of the lifeboats and machine-gunned many of the survivors. Only 24 people survived out of the 258 people on board. UB-86 was a UB III-class submarine that was commissioned on 10 November 1917, and which made five patrols during the First World War. It was surrendered to Great Britain on 24 November 1918.

Soldiers carried

Alexandria to Marseilles Acting as a troop ship 20 - 25 March 1916

• Ivor Trehane Birtwistle
• Aubrey Walter (Swazz) Mead
• Charles Robert Merchant