Aldington Court (1929)

Introduction

The name Aldington Court was used by Court Line for two ships:

• A cargo ship launched in 1929 described on this page
• A cargo ship launched in 1944 as Empire Lord and renamed Aldington Court in 1946 HERE

Aldington Court (1929) was in service from 1929 until she was sunk by enemy action in 1942 so had a working life of 13 years; she was Court Line's first motor ship. I will simply refer to her as Aldington Court on the rest of this page.

Basic Data

Additional Construction Information

The Lloyds Register entry for Aldington Court has the following additional information about her:

Career Highlights

Service Pre WW2

According to Middlemiss, [4], Aldington Court sailed from London on her maiden voyage on 26 May 1930 for Vladivostok under charter to Glen Line with Glen funnel colours and house flag. She was the first motor ship for the company and the builder, and the 1850 BHP 2-cylinder engine performed well at her service speed of 10 knots.

Unlike many of the Court Line ships, Aldington Court does not appear to have been laid up during the years of the 1930s depression. She was used to take coal to Melbourne (including during a coal strike in Australia) and grain from Hobson's Bay to Melbourne, and also transportation of lumber from Vancouver to Sydney or Melbourne, and sugar from Cairns to Japan or India.

Service in WW2

Aldington Court took part in 30 convoys before being sunk according to information shown in the table below which is provided courtesy of Convoyweb - [5]. Independent voyages during this period are also included.

Loss of Aldington Court

Aldington Court was reported to have been sunk on 31 October 1942 by German submarine U-172 - at that time commanded by Kptlt. Carl Emmermann (Knights Cross).

According to Uboat.net - [6], she was on a voyage from Philadelphia and Trinidad bound for Saldanha Bay and Alexandria carrying government stores and general cargo including coal, tractors, fuel and beer. She was torpedoed at 22:21 at position 30°20' S, 02,°10' W. Of her complement of 44 (32 crew and 10 gunners), 34 were lost including the Master.

At 22.21 hours on 31 Oct 1942 the unescorted Aldington Court (Master Alfred Stuart) was hit by two G7a torpedoes from U-172 while steaming on a non-evasive course at 10 knots in fine weather about 1000 miles west of Port Nolloth, South West Africa. The ship had left Trinidad in convoy TRIN-16 which was dispersed during the night of 11/12 October. The torpedo tracks were seen to approach from the starboard beam, but it was too late to take avoiding action and they struck below the bridge and just forward of the engine room. The explosions threw up a considerable amount of debris, destroyed both starboard lifeboats, wrecked the gun nest on the starboard side of the bridge and collapsed the bridge ladders.

The crew of 32 and twelve gunners (the ship was armed with one 4in, one 12pdr, two 20mm and four machine guns) began to abandon ship in the lifeboats on the port side with great difficulties as it was a very dark night with no moon and the ship soon listed 35° to starboard. The jolly boat in charge of the third officer was launched with 13 men in it and the only intact lifeboat was in charge of the chief officer and left within five minutes with 15 occupants. Others jumped overboard and swam to rafts that were released. The master, second officer, second radio officer and a gunner were still aboard when the ship rolled over and sank about 10 minutes after being hit. They clung to wreckage until two men were picked up by each boat. The U-boat approached the survivors about 15 minutes later and the Germans asked for the master, but on being told that he had not been saved they ordered the chief officer to come aboard. He was taken below for questioning after being blindfolded, asked about the name of the ship, the cargo and port of destination and handed a pack of 20 cigarettes before he was sent back to his lifeboat.

At daylight the lifeboat took aboard six men from a nearby raft and the area was searched for four missing men: three gunners who had been on duty at the stern gun and the first radio officer who was still sending out distress signals when the ship sank. The jolly boat only had capacity for seven men, so the number of survivors was reduced from 15 to 10 by transferring five men to the lifeboat. The master took charge of the bigger boat and set sail towards South Africa, ordering the jolly boat to keep as close as possible, but the lifeboat eventually drew ahead as it had more sails and was last seen about 40 miles east-southeast of the sinking position during the morning of 3 November. It was never found: the master, 21 crew members and six gunners were lost.

The jolly boat made about 4 knots over the next days until the wind dropped and continued by pulling at intervals for a week, making very little progress. Thirst became a problem as they were unable to collect rain water despite seeing heavy squalls passing ahead and behind the boat. Once a large whale passed the boat several times and almost capsized it. In the afternoon on 13 November, a ship was sighted and the survivors attempted to attract its attention by igniting all three available smoke floats; these either malfunctioned or had no effect. They were eventually spotted after the third officer climbed the mast and waved with a shirt.

The City of Christiania picked up the seven crew members and three gunners, hoisted their boat on board and unsuccessfully searched for the other lifeboat. The overcrowded jolly boat had sailed 260 miles in 13 days and everyone in it complained about swollen feet as they could barely move. The survivors were landed in Montevideo on 26 November, where the boatswain was taken to a hospital. During the rescue he had to be lifted aboard with a rope as he could no longer move his legs and one of them had to be amputated in the hospital as it was gangrenous. The remaining survivors were repatriated on the ship which had rescued them, arriving in the UK on 2 Feb 1943.

Submarine U-172

U-172 appears to have been one of the more successful German submarines and was commissioned on 5 November 1941. By the end of the war she claimed to have sunk 26 Allied ships totaling 152,080 grt.

According to Uboat.net - [6], U-172 was herself lost mid-Atlantic on 13 December, 1943 after a 27 hour fight. This occurred west of the Canary Islands, at position 26°29' N, 29°58' W. The U-boat was sunk by depth charges and Fido homing torpedoes from Avenger and Wildcat aircraft (VC-19) of the American escort carrier USS Bogue and by some 200 depth charges from the US destroyers USS George E. Badger, USS Clemson, USS Osmond Ingram and USS Du Pont. There were 13 dead and 46 survivors.

Roll of Honour

Merchant Navy Casualties

The Roll of Honour below lists 25 Merchant Seamen who are known to have died as a result of the sinking of Aldington Court. This data has extracted from the CWGC database.

DEMS Gunners

The Roll of Honour below lists 7 DEMS gunners who are known to have died as a result of the sinking of Aldington Court. This data has extracted from the CWGC database.