SS ''James Eagan Layne'' was a

liberty ship Liberty ships were a ship class, class of cargo ship built in the United States during World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding Program. Although British in concept, the design was adopted by the United States for its simple, low-cost cons ...

. She was beached and sunk during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

off Whitsand Bay,

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

, United Kingdom.

History

Voyages and sinking

She was built by the Delta Shipbuilding Corporation,

New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

in 1944 and was operated by the

United States Navigation Company United States Navigation Company was founded by Edward Carl Wilhelm Oelsner (1888–1973) in New York City in 1917. Oelsner was a Prussian-born German (born in Bialystok, Podlaskie, Poland), who came to America in 1908. In 1915 became a manager of ...

, of

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. She was named after the second engineer of the ''Esso Baton Rouge'', who was killed when ''Esso Baton Rouge'' was sunk by Reinhard Hardegen's ''U-123'' on 23rd February 1943. The final voyage of the ''James Eagan Layne'' was in convoy BTC-103 to carry 4,500 tons of US Army Engineers' equipment from Barry, Wales, to

Ghent Ghent ( ; ; historically known as ''Gaunt'' in English) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the Provinces of Belgium, province ...

, in Belgium. She also carried motorboats and lumber as deck cargo. She was sighted on 21 March 1945, sailing 12 miles off Plymouth by ''U-399'' and torpedoed on the starboard side between holds #4 and #5. She was badly damaged, but was taken in tow by tugs ''Flaunt'' and ''Atlas''. She was beached in Whitsand Bay

, but subsequently settled on the bottom and was declared a total loss. There were no casualties amongst her crew of 69.

As a wreck

Some salvage was done at the time of her loss before the forward holds flooded and much of the cargo in the stern section was salvaged by an Icelandic firm in 1953 with further salvage work completed in 1967. The wreck has been a popular

dive site Recreational dive sites are specific places that recreational scuba divers go to enjoy the underwater environment or for training purposes. They include technical diving sites beyond the range generally accepted for recreational diving. In this c ...

for many years. ''James Eagan Layne'' is situated east of the wreck of HMS ''Scylla'' - in 22m of water with her bows at . In June 2011, three divers got into difficulty on the wreck, resulting in one death. March 2015 is the 70th anniversary of the sinking of the ''James Eagan Layne''. To celebrate this anniversary, the Liberty 70 Project was started with the aim of researching and documenting all aspects of the life of this vessel - wartime transport, shipwreck, commercial salvage, the classic UK wreck dive and artificial reef.
The Liberty 70 Project

References

External links

The Liberty 70 ProjectSubmergedFourthElement
{{DEFAULTSORT:James Eagan Layne Liberty ships Wreck diving sites in England World War II shipwrecks in the English Channel Ships sunk by German submarines in World War II Steamships Cornish shipwrecks Ships built in New Orleans 1944 ships Maritime incidents in March 1945 Ships sunk with no fatalities 1945 in England March 1945 in the United Kingdom