HMHS Llandovery Castle
From Our Contribution
 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.