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Miscellaneous Ship Histories |
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Athenia (II)
Sinking - Newspaper and other accounts on 5 September 1939
As Athenia (II) had radio facilities and summoned help, it is presumed that news of her sinking came to the attention of the Government very quickly. However it was not until 5 September 1939 that the story was published in the newspapers.
The following pages follow the story through contemporary press cuttings and are arranged in chronological order to show what information was in the public domain.
Press Coverage 5 September 1939 |
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Image 2 |
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Image 2 is of part of Page 4 of The Times on 5 September and reports on proceedings in the House of Lords. The government were keen to make clear that Germany was responsible for a “crime against humanity” and that this was part of a pattern of treaty breaking and not the first instance. |
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Image 1 |
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Image 1 is from page 10 of The Times on 5 September and has the following caption:
THE TORPEDOED LINER - The Donaldson Atlantic liner Athenia, outward bound from Glasgow, Liverpool and Belfast to Canada, which was torpedoed about 250 miles west of the Hebrides in the early hours of yesterday. There were 1,400 persons on board, and the passengers and crew, except those killed by the explosion, took to the boats and were picked up by various ships.
Note: This photo has the appearance of a standard shipping postcard of the time that passengers would send to their families and friends. |
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Image 4 is of part of Page 8 of The Times on 5 September and reports the US views on the sinking - of great interest as there had been a large number of US citizens who were passengers on the sunken vessel and the hoped-for early US participation in the war. Clarification is given that Athenia (II) was not armed - another point to be seen with respect to the wording of international treaties. However the tone of the US correspondent is that the US were determined to remain neutral despite this event. |
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Image 5 |
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Image 5 is from Page 9 of The Times on 5 September and shows the first signs of a suggestion that this was a deliberate German act along the lines of the “unrestricted submarine warfare” as had been declared by Germany in the latter half of WW1. |
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Image 3 is of part of Page 4 of The Times on 5 September and reports on Winston Churchill’s comments on the sinking and the Government response. Key parts of the message were that four destroyers had been dispatched to rescue survivors, that a Convoy system would be deployed and that there had been no warning before Athenia (II) was torpedoed - further evidence of Germany’s law-breaking being implied. |
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Image 3 |
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Image 4 |
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Image 6 is also from Page 9 of The Times on 5 September and makes what appears with hindsight a hopefully over-optimistic statement that Britain will be using its naval strength to ensure the use of the sea to us whilst denying it to the enemy. But the writer had no idea of the way the war would proceed at that point. |
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Image 7 is also from Page 9 of The Times on 5 September and once again makes capital of Hitler having broken his word - not only in the case of not attacking passenger ships but in many other ways as well. And of course by and large this was true. |
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Govan to Nuremberg - the History of Athenia (II) |
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Image 6 |
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Image 7 |
