SS Beatus - Convoy SC-7 and Sinking

Convoy SC-7 and Sinking

The convoy left Sydney on 5 October. On arriving in UK waters it was planned that Beatus would sail to the Tyne and on to Middlesbrough. She carried a cargo of 1,626 tons of steel, 5,874 tons of lumber and a deck cargo of crated aircraft, and was under the command of her master, Wilfred Leslie Brett. The convoy was attacked by a number of U-boats which used wolfpack tactics to overwhelm the escorts. The most deadly attack came during the night of 18/19 October. Between 20.58 and 21.04 hours on 18 October, U-46, under the command of Engelbert Endrass, fired four single torpedoes at the convoy, as it passed some 100 miles west by south of Barra Head. Endrass claimed that he had sunk two ships totalling 8,000 grt, and had damaged a third totalling 7,000 grt. He had however only hit two ships, the Beatus and the SS Convallaria. Frank Holding, Assistant Steward on Beatus, recalled

'The next thing I heard was this explosion and a sound like breaking glass from down near the engine room. The ship stood still. When I went to the boat deck one of the lifeboats was already in the water, full of water...We knew we were sinking'

The master and all 36 crew members survived to be picked up by the convoy escort HMS Bluebell, and were subsequently landed at Gourock.