SS Arandora Star - Sinking

Sinking

On 2 July 1940, having left Liverpool unescorted the day before, under the command of Edgar Wallace Moulton, she was bound for St John's, Newfoundland and Canadian internment camps with nearly 1,200 German and Italian internees, including 86 prisoners of war, being transported from Britain. There were also 374 British men, comprising both military guards and the ship's crew. The Italians numbered 712 men of all ages, most of whom had been living in Britain when Benito Mussolini declared war on 10 June.

At 6.58 am off the northwest coast of Ireland, she was struck by a torpedo from the U-47, commanded by U-Boat ace Günther Prien. U-47 fired its single faulty torpedo at Arandora Star. All power was lost at once, and 35 minutes after the torpedo impact, Arandora Star sank. More than eight hundred lives were lost.

"I could see hundreds of men clinging to the ship. They were like ants and then the ship went up at one end and slid rapidly down, taking the men with her... Many men had broken their necks jumping or diving into the water. Others injured themselves by landing on drifting wreckage and floating debris near the sinking ship"

— Sergeant Norman Price

At 0705 hours Malin Head radio received the distress call, which it retransmitted to Land's End and to Portpatrick. Throughout August bodies were washed up on the Irish shore. The first was 71-year-old Ernesto Moruzzi, who was found near Burtonport. Four others were found on the same day, 30 July. During August 1940, 213 bodies were washed up on the Irish coast, of which 35 were from Arandora Star and a further 92 unidentified, most probably from the Arandora Star.