Court Line - the company and its ships

Lavington Court (2)

 

Court Line used the name Lavington Court for two ships.

· Lavington Court (1) - a cargo ship launched in 1920 as Vincenzo Florio - the subject of this entry

· Lavington Court (2) - a cargo ship launched in 1940.

 

Lavington Court (2) had a working life of just over two years. After serving on 18 convoys she met her end when she was torpedoed and sunk by a U-boat.

Basic Data

Type: Cargo ship

Registered owners,managers and operators:

Court Line Ltd.

Managers Haldin & Phillipps Ltd.

Builders: Harland & Wolff Ltd.

Yard: Govan

Country: UK

Yard number: 1032g

Registry: N/K

Official number: 167591

Signal letters: N/K

Call sign: N/K

Classification society: N/K

Gross tonnage: 5,372

Net tonnage: 3,153

Deadweight: N/K

Length: 433 ft

Breadth: 57.9 ft

Depth: 25.7 ft

Draught: N/K

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

Engine builders: Harland & Wolff Ltd.

Works: Glasgow

Country: UK

Power: N/K

Propulsion: Single screw

Speed: N/K

Cargo capacity: N/K

Crew: N/K

Participation in WW2 Convoys

 

Lavington Court (2) took part in 18 convoys according to information shown in the table below which is provided courtesy of Convoyweb   - see  Ext. Ref. #5 and met her end on the last of these.

Sinking

 

According to Ext. Ref. #4, Lavington Court (2) was in convoy OS/34 when she was attached by German submarine U-564 Captained by Reinhard Suhren at position 42.38N, 25.28W. Of the complement of 48 there were 7 dead and 41 survivors. She was carrying a cargo of 6000 tons of government stores, including 2 naval launches as deck cargo on a route from Leith - Oban (11 Jul) - Capetown - Middle East.

 

“At 02.30 hours on 19 Jul, 1942, U-564 attacked the convoy OS-34 about 200 miles north of the Azores and observed four detonations between 1 minute 15 seconds and 1 minute 27 seconds after firing. Suhren thought that he had hit four ships. However, only the Empire Hawksbill and Lavington Court were hit at this time. There were probably two hits each on the two ships.”

 

“Five crew members, one gunner and one passenger (military personnel) from the Lavington Court (Master John William Sutherland) were lost. The ship was taken in tow, but foundered on 1 August southwest of Ireland in 49°40N/18°04W. The master, 33 crew members, five gunners and two passengers were picked up by the British sloop HMS Wellington (L 65) (LtCdr F.R. Segrave) and landed at Londonderry.”

 

Roll of Honour

 

The table below lists the merchant seamen who lost their lives: their names are on panel 64 of the memorial at Tower Hill.

 

The names of the DEMS gunner and military passenger are not known but will be added if anyone can supply them - see Home Page for contact details.

Postscript

 

According to Ext. Ref. #4, U-564 was very successful and in its service life of just over 2 years sunk 18 merchant ships totalling 95,544 GRT, sunk 1 warship of 900 tons and damaged 4 merchant ships totalling 28,907 GRT.

 

She was herself sunk at 1730hrs on 14 June, 1943 north-west of Cape Ortegal, Spain, in position 44.17N, 10.25W, by depth charges from a British Whitley aircraft (10 OTU/G). There were 28 dead and 18 survivors.            

“At 14.39 hours, two inbound boats were spotted by the Whitley in the Bay of Biscay and shadowed. U-564 was unable to dive after an air attack the day before and was escorted back to France by

U-185. At 16.45 hours, the fuel of the aircraft was running low and the pilot decided to attack U-564. Both boats opened fire and hit the bomber, but its depth charges caused more damages on the boat and she sank at 17.30 hours. The hydraulics and the starboard engine of the Whitley were damaged, so the crew was forced to ditch and ended up as German prisoners after being picked up by a French trawler.”

 

Images

 

1. Image #1 taken by the Webmaster at Tower Hill

 

No images of this ship have been located to date. Anyone having one is requested to contact this site (see Home Page).

Image 1 is a photo of the plaque for Aldington Court  at the Tower Hill Memorial.

Image 1