Court Line - the company and its ships

Darlington Court

 

Court Line used the name Darlington Court for just one ship.

 

She had a tragically short 5 years working life. After being chartered for long periods of time, she took part in many convoys during WW2 but was torpedoed and sunk in 1941 with great loss of life under dreadful circumstances.

Basic Data

Type: Cargo ship

Registered owners,managers and operators:

Court Line Ltd.

Managers Haldin and Phillipps

Builders: Lithgows Ltd.

Yard: Port Glasgow

Country: UK

Yard number: 879

Registry: N/K

Official number: 164642

Signal letters: N/K

Call sign: N/K

Classification society: N/K

Gross tonnage: 4,974

Net tonnage: 3,014

Deadweight: N/K

Length: 414.5 ft

Breadth: 56.1 ft

Depth: 25.6 ft

Draught: N/K

Engines: 6 cylinder  4 S.C.S.A oil engine

Engine builders: J.G.Kincaid & Co. Ltd.

Works: Greenock

Country: UK

Power: 490 nhp

Propulsion: Single screw

Speed: N/K

Cargo capacity: N/K

Crew: N/K

Service Pre-WW2

 

No information currently available other than that Darlington Court was used under charter to Canadian Transport of Vancouver for some time.

Participation in WW2 Convoys

 

Darlington Court  took part in 19 convoys according to information shown in the table below which is provided courtesy of Convoyweb   - see  Ext. Ref. #5. She was sunk whilst taking part in convoy HX.126.

Sinking

 

 

According to Ext. Ref #4, Darlington Court was sunk by German submarine U-556 commanded by Herbert Wohlfarth at position 57.28N 41.07W. Darlington Court was part of convoy HX126 carrying wheat and aircraft from Halifax when she was attached. Of the ship’s complement of 40 there were 28 dead and 12 survivors). Convoy HX.126 was ill-fated and from start to finish lost no less than nine ships. See External resource #6 for full details of this convoy.

 

Notes on loss:  At 14.48, 14.50 and 15.16 hours on 20 May 1941, U-556 attacked the convoy HX-126 south of Cape Farewell sank the three ships Darlington Court, British Security and Cockaponset.

 

The master Charles Hurst, ten crew members and one gunner from the Darlington Court were picked up by the rescue ship Hontestroom and landed at Reykjavik on 27 May. 22 crew members, three gunners and three passengers were lost. 

 

Charles Hurst was in command of Arlington Court (2) which was torpedoed 18 months earlier.

 

Survivors Report

 

Ext. Ref.  #10 provides a commented account of an interview with a survivor of the sinking - Chief Engineer A. H. Stirling. The extract below is just that part of the item that came directly from the original source - the Public Records Office in Kew. Please refer to the original for more information.

 

We were bound from Halifax to U.K. with a cargo of 8500 tons of grain. We were armed with a 4" gun, 3 Hotchkiss, a Holman projector and a Kite. The ship was degaussed but the apparatus was not working. The crew, including 2 Military Gunners and 2 Naval Gunners, numbered 37, of whom 25 are missing. The confidential books went down with the ship.

 

We left Halifax on the 10th May in Convoy HX 126 bound for U.K. and proceeded without incident until the early hours of the 20th when two ships in the convoy, No.'s 91 and 93, were torpedoed . We altered course to 90° until about 06:00 when we changed course again, and at 09:00 we went back to our original course.

 

About 12:58 the same day, in position 57 18N 41 07W, as our Escort hoisted a signal reporting a submarine on our starboard* side, we were struck by a torpedo on the port side in the engine room, followed 2 seconds later by another torpedo in the deep tank forward of the engine room. The sea was calm, wind slight, weather was fine and visibility hazy. We were making 8 1/2 knots on Course 035°. The first explosion, which was heavier and sharper than the second, stopped the main engine immediately, and the second torpedo, which struck the deep tank, split the ship in two. The ship capsized immediately, and in about 45 seconds she was out of sight.

 

I had only just come out of the engine room when the torpedo struck us and, finding it impossible to enter it again, I came on to the boat deck, trying to get my lifebelt over my head, when I was washed over the side. When I came to the surface I looked for wreckage but could not see anything except the blazing tanker, British Security, directly astern of us, which was torpedoed immediately after us. The flames were about 60 ft. high, and a huge column of smoke appeared to come out of the water and burst into flame. I swam about for 3 hours and about 16:00 I managed to reach our starboard lifeboat at the same time as the captain. The port lifeboats were thrown out of their davits by the explosion, and the starboard lifeboat, which the captain cut adrift, overturned on reaching the water but righted herself when the ship turned over. Within a quarter of an hour of reaching the boat we picked up 5 of our crew who were on wreckage and tried to reach some more of them, but on account of the fire from the blazing tanker spreading we could not get to them. After that we made for the open sea to get away from the fire, and at 22:20 we found another raft with 5 more survivors, whom we picked up.

 

At 07:00 on the 21st we were picked up by the Hontestroom. We cruised around for 3 days, picking up survivors from Cockaponsest on the 21st and on the 24th we found a lifeboat belonging to the Peterson. We were landed at Reykjavik on Monday, the 26th.

 

The chief engineer considered that had it not been for the captain no one from his ship would have been saved. At the time of the explosion the rest of the crew were struggling with their lifebelts, but the captain cut the lifeboat adrift himself and was not wearing a lifebelt when in the small boat.

 

The chief engineer also said that although they were very grateful for the assistance rendered by the Hontestroom in picking them up, there was little comfort aboard her. There were 70 survivors, including the men from the Cockaponset, and they were all accommodated in the after hold 'tween deck. There were 68 beds, and owing to little ventilation the atmosphere was far from fresh. The food was insufficient; they had two small tins of bully-beef amongst 16 and dry bread, and for two days not even bread, only biscuits. No hot meal was given to them. There was also little water for cleansing purposes. He also said that the crew, who were Dutch, did not appear to have any use for them. They had plenty of cigarettes on board but would not sell them. The doctor gave them as many as he could, but there were 70 survivors and they were on the ship for five days. (In fact, Hontestroom was withdrawn from rescue service after this, because of deficient accommodation and facilities, and was later employed in the freight trade.

 

Ext. Ref. #10 also includes the following additional disturbing comment:

 

With regard to British Security, the Commanding Officer of the escorting Aurania says the following in his report:

"There were several tremendous explosions, sheets of flame and black smoke, which went up at least 500 feet. She was about 2 cables on my port beam when struck. The men on the wreckage from the Darlington Court floated into this burning hell, their cries were ghastly and now I wish I had put my machine gun on them".

 

 

Roll of Honour

 

The table below lists the crew members that died - the list does not include the details of passengers or DEMS gunners - these are currently not known. All are listed on panel 34 of the Tower Hill memorial.

Postscript

 

U-556 was commissioned on 6 Feb, 1941 and took part in two patrols. She claimed responsibility for sinking a total of six ships totalling 29,552 GRT and damaging one ship of 4,986 GRT. Ships sunk were Emanuel (166 grt) 6th May 1941; Empire Caribou (4,861 grt) 10th May 1941; Gand (5,086 grt) 10 May 1941; Darlington Court (4,974 grt) 20 May 1941; Cockaponset (5,995 grt) 20 May 1941; British Security (8,470 grt) 20 May 1941. The damaged ship was  Aelybryn (4,986 grt) 10th May 1941.

 

U-556 was herself sunk 27 Jun1941 in the North Atlantic south-west of Iceland, in position 60.24N, 20.00W, by depth charges from the British corvettes HMS Nasturtium, HMS Celandine and HMS Gladiolus. There were 5 dead and 41 survivors. This was just over a month after she had sunk Darlington Court.  

 

 

Images

 

1. Image #1 from The Allen Collection

 

Image 1