| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | Sagaing |
| Namesake | Sagaing |
| Owner | British & Burmese SN Co |
| Operator | P Henderson & Co |
| Port of registry | Glasgow |
| Route | Glasgow orLiverpool –Rangoon |
| Builder | Wm Denny & Bros,Dumbarton |
| Yard number | 1167 |
| Launched | 12 December 1924 |
| Completed | 13 March 1925 |
| Identification |
|
| Fate | Damaged by air raid 1942;scuttled 1943; raised and scuttled again 2018. |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | passenger &cargo liner |
| Tonnage | 1930: 7,994 GRT, 4,978 NRT, 10,330 DWT |
| Length | 454.6 ft (138.6 m) |
| Beam | 61.2 ft (18.7 m) |
| Depth | 31.0 ft (9.4 m) |
| Decks | 2 |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion | 1 ×screw |
| Speed | 1939: 14 knots (26 km/h) |
| Capacity | 137 passengers |
| Crew | 120 |
| Sensors & processing systems |
|
SSSagaing was aBritishpassenger andcargosteamship that was launched in Scotland in 1924. Her peacetime route was a scheduled service betweenGlasgow orLiverpool, and Rangoon (nowYangon). In 1942, Japanese aircraft damaged her inTrincomalee Harbour in theEaster Sunday Raid onCeylon. In 1943 she wasscuttled to form a pier. In 2018 her wreck was raised, removed from the harbour, and scuttled in deeper water.
Sagaing was one of a family of similarly sized liners thatWilliam Denny and Brothers ofDumbarton on theRiver Leven built forP Henderson & Company, which operated as Henderson Line. These wereAmarapoora;Pegu;Kemmendine; andYoma, completed in 1920, 1921, 1924 and 1928 respectively.[1][2][3][4] Each was about 8,000 gross register tons (GRT), and carried cargo as well as passengers. The ships weremanaged by theBritish and Burmese Steam Navigation Company.[5][6]
Denny's builtSagaing as yard number 1167. She was launched on 12 December 1924, and completed on 13 March 1925.[7] Her registered length was 454.6 ft (138.6 m), herbeam was 61.2 ft (18.7 m), and her depth was 31.0 ft (9.4 m). Hertonnages were 7,994 GRT, 4,978 NRT,[8] and 10,330 DWT.[7] She carried a crew of 120, and had berths for 137 passengers. Henderson Line employed British officers;lascar ratings; and onSagaing's final voyage, the carpenter was Chinese.[9] She had astraight stem,clipper stern, two masts, one funnel,[7] and light-liftderricks for hercargo hatches fore and aft.[9]
Sagaing had a singlescrew. Three single-endedHowden boilers supplied superheated steam to her main engine,[7] which was a three-cylindertriple-expansion engine that was built by Denny's, and rated at 521NHP. In 1939 a Bauer-Wachexhaust steam turbine was added, which drove the same shaft as the piston engine, viadouble-reduction gearing and aFöttingerfluid coupling.[10] This increased her fuel efficiency, and gave her a top speed of 14 knots (26 km/h).[9]
Henderson LineregisteredSagaing in Glasgow. Her UKofficial number was 144845, and hercode letters were KSHN. By 1930 hercall sign was GLDZ;[11] and by 1934 this had superseded her code letters.[12] By 1930, her navigation equipment included wirelessdirection finding.[8] By 1936, she was also equipped with anecho sounding device.[13]
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Sagaing's peacetime route was a scheduled service between Glasgow or Liverpool, and Rangoon,[5][6] via theSuez Canal. In 1934–35, theports of call on the route wereGibraltar,Marseille,Port Said, andPort Sudan.[14] On 1 October 1939,Sagaing left Port Said as one of 24 ships in Convoy Blue 3, which reached Gibraltar on 11 October.[15] There she joined Convoy HG3, which left Gibraltar on 13 October for Liverpool.[16]U-boats attacked HG3 on 17 October.U-46 sankEllerman Lines'City of Mandalay;U-37 sankBibby Line'sYorkshire; andU-48 sankClan Line'sClan Chisholm.[17][18][19] On the night of 18 October,U-48 fired torpedoes atSagaing, but missed.[20][21] Some of her passengers put women and children into a lifeboat, and tried to lower it. The lifeboat capsized before reaching the water, and several of its occupants drowned.[22] The destroyerHMS Escort joinedSagaing and escorted her away,[23] andSagaing safely completed her voyage to Liverpool.[24]
Sagaing continued her normal route, but using convoys in each direction for the leg of her voyage between Britain and Gibraltar. She left Liverpool for Rangoon on 8 November 1939 with outward bound Convoy OB 32, which at sea became OG 6 to Gibraltar. She returned via Gibraltar in Convoy HG 16F, which reached Liverpool on 28 January 1940. She left Liverpool again on 24 February 1940 with Convoy OB 98, which became OG 20F.[24]
However, on 10 May,Germany invaded France and the Low Countries. The UK anticipated thatItaly would join the war on Germany's side, so it started to divert merchant shipping to avoid the Mediterranean.Sagaing returned from Rangoon via theCape of Good Hope and the South Atlantic, and called atFreetown inSierra Leone, where she joinedConvoy SL 35. This left Freetown on 8 June, and reached Liverpool on 25 June.[25] On 10 June, Italy declared war against France and the UK; and on 22 June,France capitulated. This effectively closed the Mediterranean to Allied merchant shipping.Sagaing continued to sail via the Cape of Good Hope. On her homeward voyages she continued to go via Freetown, joining Convoy SL 54 which left on 4 November 1940, and SL 73 which left on 27 April 1941.[24]
On what became her final homeward voyage,Sagaing was diverted even further. She sailed via the western Atlantic, calling atSaint Lucia,Hampton Roads, andHalifax.[26][27] There she joinedConvoy HX 160, which left Halifax on 15 November 1941, and reached Liverpool on 30 November.[28] From 19 December 1941 to 7 February 1942,Sagaing was in Glasgow for repairs.[citation needed]
On 14 December 1941, theJapanese invasion of Burma began. On 10 February 1942,Sagaing left Glasgow carrying a cargo that included disassembledHawker Hurricanes; a large quantity of ammunition;mines; and about 2,300depth charges. The depth charges were stowed as deck cargo, forward of her main superstructure.[29] They were mounted on quick-release sledges, with 50 depth charges on each sledge, in order to be jettisoned overboard in the event of an emergency.[30] She also carried 20,000 cases each ofAllsopp beer andJohnnie Walker Red Label whisky.[29] On 11 February she joined Convoy OS 19 from Liverpool, which took her as far as Freetown.[31] She called atCape Town from 12 to 13 March;Durban from 16 to 19 March; andColombo in Ceylon from 1 to 3 April.[27] Singaporefell on 15 February, followed byRangoon on 7 March. As a result,Sagaing'swireless operators received numerousAdmiralty signals, warning of an increased risk of naval and air attacks in theIndian Ocean from a Japanese fleet operating in theStrait of Malacca.[27][32]
By April 1942,Sagaing was underMinistry of War Transport control. Also, Henderson Line was seeking to transfer her from the British & Burmese Steam Navigation Company to the Burmah Steamship Co, Ltd, to avoidBoard of Trade shipping regulations.[27] ABrowning anti-aircraft gun had been supplied asDEMS armament, but its installation on herpoop deck had not been carried out. Before she sailed for Ceylon, her owners had removed most of her safety equipment and stock of emergency spares.[9]
Overnight from 3 to 4 April,Sagaing moved from Colombo to Trincomalee. She kept close to the coast as a precaution against Japanese sea or air attack. In thick fog on 4 April she reached Trincomalee on the east coast of Ceylon, where apilot guided her to the munitions anchorage at Malay Cove to await orders of where to go from Ceylon.[33] She tried to leave port on 5 April, but returned the next day.[27]
Over the next few days there was a series of false alarms of Japanese attacks, the last of which was on the morning of 9 April. An all-clear signal was given, but shortly thereafter, aircraft of the Japanese Navy'sKidō Butai ("Mobile Strike Force") attacked Trincomalee Harbour. The first wave of the attack onSagaing caused explosions fore and aft, and incapacitated herMaster,Captain O'Hara, who was on herbridge. A second attack strafed the ship, leaving herlisting tostarboard and down by her bow.[34]
Herengine room flooded, and twisting of her hull jammed its watertight doors shut.[35] The third attack run blew open her cargo hatches, exposing her volatile cargo of alcohol and munitions. Her crew started to neutralise each depth charge's detonator so that the charges could be safely jettisoned, and to prepare her lifeboats to be lowered.[36] Fire spread through hatchways across her decks, and toward her crew quarters. After about 15 minutes they abandoned ship, by which time her hull plates were glowing red.[37]
Sagaing briefly righted herself, but then listed more steeply. Air trapped below decks vented violently, separating her deck plates, and forming a cloud of mud and rust. Shortly afterwards, fire reached the munitions that had not been dumped overboard, and the ship exploded.[37] What remained of her slowly drifted toward the shore of Malay Cove. The attack lasted almost half an hour.[38] It killed three members ofSagaing's crew,[39][40][41] and the wife and baby son of one of the junior deck officers.[35]
Despite the severity of the damage, most ofSagaing's cargo of aircraft and ammunition wassalvaged.[42] On 24 August 1943, her hulk was scuttled in 35 feet (11 m) of water to form a pier.[22][43]
On 11 September 2017, the Eastern Command of theSri Lanka Navy was tasked with salvaging and relocating the wreck, to make room to expand the harbour.[42] Captain Krishantha Athukorala, Command Diving Officer of the Eastern Command, headed the operation, which was supervised by senior diver A Liyanage.[citation needed] The hulk was strengthened, and a prefabricated artificial side to the ship was installed in order to make the wreck watertight enough below deck level to de-water and refloat her.[43] The operation took five months; permanently employed a team of 98 divers; and used acrane barge lent by theTokyo Cement Company. The wreck was refloated on 22 March. It was then towed out of the harbour, and on 30 March 2018 it was re-scuttled in deeper water to conserve it.[42]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in October 1939 | |
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Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in August 1943 | |
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