Namibia: West Coast shipwrecks: "Sir Charles Elliott" & "City of Baroda" | Кораблекрушения у западного побережья Намибии
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13. "Sir Charles Elliott"
Date: 03.12.1942
Rocky Point
The tug Sir Charles Elliott arrived at Dunedin Star wreck site from Walvis Bay on 02 December 1942. She had at once closed the wreck of the Dunedin Star. The motorboat of the Temeraire put the 43 rescued men on board the tug, which, with difficulty, managed to get alongside the Manchester Division and transferred them. Captain Lee, Chief Engineer Tomlinson and 2nd Senior Engineer McGee remained on the tug and were put onto the minesweeper Nerine.
After leaving the wreck on 3rd Dec. the tug had set her course for Walvis Bay. At midnight Capt. Brewin handed over the watch to the second mate, Mr. Tommy Cox, and turned in. He was awakened about six o'clock next morning by the sound of a crash and a feeling of intense jarring. The treacherous current, combined with a shifting coastline and inadequate charts, had lured one more vessel to destruction a short distance north of Rocky Point.
Captain Brewin and his crew, fighting against the raging surf and the Benguela Current, manage to get ashore. Tragically, Angus McIntyre 1st mate and Mathias Koraseb African deckhand failed to make it ashore and their lives were lost.
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| Grave of Mathias Koraseb |
On the 8th Dec. Capt. Smith and his Land Convoy arrived, ferried the survivors to Lt Col. Joubert’s Ventura Bomber and were flown back to Walvis Bay. The SS Sir Charles Elliott, a South African rescue steam tug, ran aground and was wrecked at Rocky Point on return trip to Cape Town after MV Dunedin Star rescue operation.
Casualties: two crew members lost their lives while trying to swim ashore. The grave of Mathias Koraseb is still at Rocky Point, second sailor's body was never found. Builder: Fleming & Ferguson Ltd., Paisley.
14. "City of Baroda"
Date: 02.04.1943
90 miles south of Luderitz
"City of Baroda" SS: 7130 ton British cargo merchant steamer built in 1918 by Barclay, Curle & Co Ltd, Whiteinch, Glasgow (yard number 526) and owned by Hall Line Ltd, Ellerman Lines Ltd, London. She was torpedoed by German submarine U-509 and sunk when en-route from London to Walvis Bay, Durban, Colombo and Calcutta via Trinidad in Convoy NC-9 carrying a 7 000 tons of general cargo, 1 500 bags of mail and 203 passengers. 11 persons lost their lives from a total of 331. U-509 was part of Gruppe Seehund (patrol group of five U-boats).
Convoy NC-9 comprised two ships. On April 2nd Witte found the small convoy south of Walvis Bay. Approaching submerged he fired a salvo of 4 torpedoes by sonar bearings at extreme range. Astonishingly two torpedoes hit "City of Baroda" after 3 minutes and 40 seconds. The badly damaged ship was towed to Luderitz on 7th April 1943, where she was grounded. She broke in two and was declared a total loss. At 22.00 hours on 2 April 1943 the "City of Baroda" (Master Charles Stuart Nelson) in convoy NC-9 was hit by one of three torpedoes from U-509 about 90 miles south of Luderitz Bay, South West Africa.
The badly damaged vessel was abandoned by the crew and two days later drifted ashore in 27°31S/15°19E and became a total loss after waves broke up the wreck until 26 April. One crew member and twelve passengers were lost. The master, 129 crew members, four gunners and 191 passengers were picked up by HMS Cape Warwick (FY 167) (T/Lt W.E. Goggin, RNR) and landed in Cape Town. Builder: Barclay, Curle & Co. Ltd., Whiteinch (Glasgow).
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