SS ''Shuntien'' was a coastal passenger and cargo liner of the British-owned
The China Navigation Company
The China Navigation Company Limited (CNCo) is a London-based holding company of merchant shipping companies Swire Shipping Pte Ltd and Swire Bulk Pte Ltd, both of which are headquartered in Singapore.
CNCo is part of the Swire group and who ...
Ltd (CNC). She was built in
Hong Kong
Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...
in 1934 and sunk by enemy action in the
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...
with great loss of life in 1941. A
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
corvette
A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper (or " rated") warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the sloo ...
rescued most of ''Shuntien''s survivors, but a few hours later the corvette too was sunk and no-one survived.
Peacetime service
Taikoo Dockyard
Taikoo Dockyard and Engineering Company () was a dockyard in what is now Taikoo Shing, MTR Tai Koo station and part of Taikoo Place of Quarry Bay on the Hong Kong Island in Hong Kong. It predates the era before the reclamation of Victoria Harbour. ...
and Engineering Company in Hong Kong built ''Shuntien'' for CNC in 1934. She replaced an earlier and smaller SS ''Shuntien'' that Scotts at
Greenock
Greenock (; ; , ) is a town in Inverclyde, Scotland, located in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. The town is the administrative centre of Inverclyde Council. It is a former burgh within the historic county of Renfrewshire, and forms ...
on the
Firth of Clyde
The Firth of Clyde, is the estuary of the River Clyde, on the west coast of Scotland. The Firth has some of the deepest coastal waters of the British Isles. The Firth is sheltered from the Atlantic Ocean by the Kintyre, Kintyre Peninsula. The ...
had built in 1904 and that was scrapped in 1935. The new ''Shuntien'' was a sister ship of SS ''Shengking'', which Scotts had built in 1931. Both Taikoo Dockyard and CNC were owned by John Swire and Sons Ltd, which is British-owned but based in Hong Kong.The archives of John Swire & Sons Ltd (including the papers of the Taikoo Dockyard and the China Navigation Company Ltd) are held at the
School of Oriental and African Studies
The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS University of London; ) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury area ...
, London, http://www.soas.ac.uk/library/archives/
The new ''Shuntien''s engines were
steam turbines
A steam turbine or steam turbine engine is a machine or heat engine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work utilising a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Sir Charles Par ...
built by Taikoo Dockyard. She was built to trade along the coast of China, where her relatively shallow draught enabled her to turn in the
Hai River
The Hai River (海河, lit. "Sea River"), also known as the Peiho, ("White River"), or Hai Ho, is a Chinese river connecting Beijing to Tianjin and the Bohai Sea.
During the Song dynasty, the main stream of the Hai River was called the lowe ...
at
Tianjin
Tianjin is a direct-administered municipality in North China, northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the National Central City, nine national central cities, with a total population of 13,866,009 inhabitants at the time of the ...
and her
icebreaker
An icebreaker is a special-purpose ship or boat designed to move and navigate through ice-covered waters, and provide safe waterways for other boats and ships. Although the term usually refers to ice-breaking ships, it may also refer to smaller ...
bow equipped her against
sea ice
Sea ice arises as seawater freezes. Because ice is less density, dense than water, it floats on the ocean's surface (as does fresh water ice). Sea ice covers about 7% of the Earth's surface and about 12% of the world's oceans. Much of the world' ...
in northern waters.
In 1937 ''Shuntien'' returned to Taikoo Dockyard for maintenance, and while she was there the Great Hong Kong Typhoon of 1937 blew her ashore. She survived, was refloated and returned to service.
War service and sinking
In the Second World War the British government requisitioned ''Shuntien'' and converted her into a Defensively-Equipped Merchant Ship (DEMS). Photographs of ''Shuntien'' taken about that time by a US photographer,
Harrison Forman
Harrison Forman (June 15, 1904 – January 31, 1978) was an American photographer and journalist. He wrote for ''The New York Times'' and ''National Geographic''. During World War II he reported from China and interviewed Mao Zedong.
Biography ...
, show ''Shuntien'' in the
Port of Shanghai
The Port of Shanghai ( zh, c=上海港, p=''Shànghǎi Gǎng'' ; Wu; ''Zånhae Kån'') is located in the vicinity of Shanghai, comprises a deep-sea port and a river port.
The main port enterprise in Shanghai, the Shanghai International Por ...
apparently being converted into a
prison ship
A prison ship, is a current or former seagoing vessel that has been modified to become a place of substantive detention for convicts, prisoner of war, prisoners of war or civilian internees. Some prison ships were hulk (ship type), hulked. W ...
. ''Shuntien'' moved to the
Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...
, where her British officers supplemented her Chinese crew with Arab and
Maltese
Maltese may refer to:
* Someone or something of, from, or related to Malta
* Maltese alphabet
* Maltese cuisine
* Maltese culture
* Maltese language, the Semitic language spoken by Maltese people
* Maltese people, people from Malta or of Maltese ...
recruits.
In the
Western Desert Campaign
The Western Desert campaign (Desert War) took place in the Sahara Desert, deserts of Egypt and Libya and was the main Theater (warfare), theatre in the North African campaign of the Second World War. Military operations began in June 1940 with ...
in December 1941 ''Shuntien'' left
Tobruk
Tobruk ( ; ; ) is a port city on Libya's eastern Mediterranean coast, near the border with Egypt. It is the capital of the Butnan District (formerly Tobruk District) and has a population of 120,000 (2011 est.)."Tobruk" (history), ''Encyclop� ...
in
Cyrenaica
Cyrenaica ( ) or Kyrenaika (, , after the city of Cyrene), is the eastern region of Libya. Cyrenaica includes all of the eastern part of Libya between the 16th and 25th meridians east, including the Kufra District. The coastal region, als ...
, eastern Libya as a member of Convoy TA 5 bound for
Alexandria
Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...
in Egypt. She was carrying between 800 and 1,000 Italian and German prisoners of war, guarded by more than 40 soldiers of the
Durham Light Infantry
The Durham Light Infantry (DLI) was a light infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 to 1968. It was formed in 1881 under the Childers Reforms by the amalgamation of the 68th (Durham) Regiment of Foot (Light Infantry) and ...
(DLI).
At about 19:02 on the evening of 23rd December the
Type VIIC
Type may refer to:
Science and technology Computing
* Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc.
* Data type, collection of values used for computations.
* File type
* TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file.
* Ty ...
torpedoed ''Shuntien'', blowing off her
stern
The stern is the back or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite the bow, the foremost part of a ship. O ...
and killing her captain, four officers and chief steward. Her bow rose in the air and she sank within five minutes without having been able to launch any of her
lifeboats
Lifeboat may refer to:
Rescue vessels
* Lifeboat (shipboard), a small craft aboard a ship to allow for emergency escape
* Lifeboat (rescue), a boat designed for sea rescues
* Airborne lifeboat, an air-dropped boat used to save downed airmen
...
.
A convoy escort, the , rescued ''Shuntien''s
Master
Master, master's or masters may refer to:
Ranks or titles
In education:
*Master (college), head of a college
*Master's degree, a postgraduate or sometimes undergraduate degree in the specified discipline
*Schoolmaster or master, presiding office ...
, William Shinn, 46 of the ship's officers and men and an unknown number of her prisoners, DEMS gunners and DLI guards. The total number of survivors that ''Salvia'' rescued was about 100. The rescued a smaller number: between 11 and 19.
A few hours later, at about 01:35 A.m. On 24 December, torpedoed ''Salvia'' about west of Alexandria. The torpedo broke the corvette in two and poured burning bunker oil onto the sea; no-one survived. The small party of survivors aboard ''Heythrop'' was landed at Alexandria. It included only one of ''Shuntiens officers,
Second Engineer
A second engineer or first assistant engineer is a licensed member of the engineering department on a merchant vessel. This title is used for the person on a ship responsible for supervising the daily maintenance and operation of the engine depa ...
John Hawkrigg.
See also
* — torpedoed November 1942 while carrying Italian prisoners of war and interned civilians