Talk:MV Empire Comet

Rewrite

I've been working my way through the Empire ships and have got this far. The text below is from the original article. There is much of interest, but referencihg is a big issue here. I propose to strike through info which has been incorporated into the article, leaving unverified stuff to enable efforts to be concentrated on finding refs for that so it can be re-incorporated into the article. Mjroots (talk) 06:51, 12 May 2010 (UTC)

The MV Empire Comet was a British Ministry of War transport ship. She was built in November 1940 and finally completed in January 1941. The crew signed their Articles of Agreement in February 1941. Her maiden voyage was as a member of convoys BB46 and BB47 from Bristol to Belfast and back, also in February of that year. Among the crew of 38 sailors and 8 DEMS gunners was one of the youngest boy seamen in World War II, Angus Bannerman Robertson, aged 15 years. (He was later to lose his life, aged 16, as the ship went down with all hands lost.) The Empire Comet set sail on what was to be her last voyage at 1400 hrs. on 7 February 1942, as a member of convoy HX174. The convoy consisted of 32 ships of which seven were tankers, average speed was 7.89 knots. (Empire Comet's top speed was 12 knots.) The Western Escort for the convoy was carried out by the Royal Canadian Navy ships Arrow Head, Snowberry, Galt, Saskatoon and Mahone. On 10 February the convoy encountered dense fog off the north eastern coast of Nova Scotia. Sound contact was also made with an enemy U-boat at 51°35N, 44°28W but was later lost. The ships in the convoy were told, as it seems, by the RCN escort to scatter and make their own way. At some stage within the next few hours, the ships from the convoy were called back together by the RCN escort and once again made their way as convoy HX174; all except Empire Comet and the ship MV Anderson who had returned to Newfoundland for unknown reasons. The convoy reached Liverpool on 21 February 1942 with 30 ships. Empire Comet was reported as a 'straggler' and 'overdue'. Later a Joint Arbitration Committee considered her to be a "War Loss" and a Missing Ship Committee considered her lost on 19 February 1942.

Through documents obtained many years after World War II from British, Canadian and German sources it was discovered intact, that MV Empire Comet must have made her own way at near full speed. She was discovered by a lone German U-boat, U136, who was on the last part of a patrol around the western approaches to the U.K. south west of Rockall. Her skipper, Kpt. Lt. Heinrich Zimmermann, had almost given up hope of another sinking before he was to order his boat back to H.Q. 6th. U-boat Flotilla at St. Nazaire, France. (Log book U136). On the evening of 17 February at approx. 22.17 hrs. CET the U-boat spotted Empire Comet sailing in an east/south-east direction and proceeded to attack her with two torpedoes. The ship was hit at the bow and stern, sinking her within 9 minutes with all hands lost. The position of Empire Comet at the time of sinking was 58°10N, 14°00W (Log book U136). The approximate position of convoy HX174 at the time of sinking of the Empire Comet was 58°20N, 21°10W, some 150–200 nsm west of her position. (Which would mean she was NOT a straggler.) Kpt. Lt. Zimmerman wrote in his log book that the Empire Comet went down bow first with the stern rising into the air. Once below the surface the crew of U136 could hear "heavy detonations of depth charges". It was not known that the Empire Comet carried depth charges as a defence against submarine attack. Or was her actual load more than just 'general cargo' as officially documented? Because of the continuation of the war in Europe and secrecy laws thereafter, the actual destiny of the Empire Comet and her men were not known until some 52 years later. Many wives, parents, brothers and sisters went to their graves never finding out what happened to their loved ones, as in many cases during the Second World War.

Empire Comet *Built by: Lithgows Ltd. shipbuilders, Port Glasgow

• Launched: 21 November 1940
• Completed: 24 January 1941

Ship type: X Official Number: 166996 Signal Code: GPFU

Dimensions

• Tonnage: 6914 (gross) 4162 (net)
• Length: 423.7 ft.
• Breadth: 56.2 ft.
• Depth: 34.3 ft.

Engines Type: Oil engines, 490 NHP Builder: J.G. Kinkaid & Co.Ltd. Greenock Speed: 12 knots

Port of Registry: Greenock, Scotland Flag: British Merchant Navy Owner: Ministry of War Transport (Dodd, Thomson & Co.Ltd.- Managers) Master: Capt. H.R. Willis (Whitby, Norfolk) Crew: 38+8 DEMS gunners Class at Lloyds: +100A1

Details of Loss Date: 17 Feb. 1942 Position: 58°10N, 14°00W (NOT 58°15N, 17°10W as stated by British Govt. and other publications!) Convoy N°.: HX 174 from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Liverpool, England. (Actual voyage was Liverpool - Bombay - Halifax - Liverpool) Cargo: 8672 tons general. (incl. manganese ore, tea, ground nuts & linseed oil) Cause: Torpedo (2x from U-boat U136)

List of convoy participation

• 28 Feb.- 15 March 1941 (Lloyds List) convoy OB291 Liverpool - Boston
• 31 March - 19 April 1941(Lloyds List) convoy HX118 Halifax - Liverpool
• 8–23 May 1941 (Lloyds List) convoy OB320 Liverpool - Montreal

*2–22 June 1941 (Lloyds List) convoy HX131 Halifax - Liverpool

• 30 July - 14 August 1941 (Lloyds List convoy OG70 Liverpool - Gibraltar

From this point on Empire Comet made her way as an 'independent'. Her 'ports of call' were: 3rd.Oct.1941 Port Sudan, Sudan 30th.Oct.1941 Bombay, India 17th.Nov.1941 Cochin, India 23rd.Nov.1941 Galle, Sri Lanka (fmr.Ceylon) 13th.Dec.1941 Table Bay, S.Africa 5th.Jan.1942 Trinidad, West Indies 20th.Jan1942 Halifax, Canada 7th.Feb.1942 (Lloyds List) convoy HX174 Halifax - Liverpool

Sources;

• Bibliotek fuer Zeitgeschichte, Stuttgart, Germany
• Horst Bredow, U-boat Archive,Cuxhaven, Germany
• The Empire Ships by Mitchell & Sawyer, Loyyds of London Press 1990
• Glasgow University Archives, Glasgow, Scotland
• BBC Weather office,London, England
• Department of Trade, London, England
• Imperial War Museum, London, England
• Guildhall Library, London, England
• Ministry of Defence, London, England
• National Archives, Washington DC, USA
• National Archives of Canada, Ottawa, Canada