Introduction
The name Dorington Court was used by Court Line for five ships:
- A cargo ship completed in 1908 and described HERE
- A cargo ship completed in 1915 and described HERE
- A cargo ship completed in 1939 and described on this page
- A cargo ship completed in 1940 as Empire Meteor and described HERE
- A cargo ship completed in 1957 and described HERE
Dorington Court (1939) had a short working life of just over three years. During this time she served on many WW2 convoys but was torpedoed and then finished off by gunfire from a German submarine in 1942 with the loss of the lives of four crew members. But Dorington Court (1939) had her revenge as her design became the basis of the Empire ships, the Ocean ships and finally the Liberty ships. I will refer to her simply as Dorington Court in the rest of this page.
Basic Data
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Vessel Type | Cargo ship |
| Registered owners, managers and operators | Court Line. Ltd. Managers Haldin & Phillipps |
| Builders | J.L.Thompson & Sons Ltd. |
| Yard | Sunderland |
| Country | UK |
| Yard number | 592 |
| Official number | 167241 |
| Call sign | GSST |
| Classification society | N/K |
| Gross tonnage | 5,281 |
| Net tonnage | 3,113 |
| Deadweight | N/K |
| Length | 426 Ft. |
| Breadth | 59.9 Ft. |
| Depth | 25.5 Ft. |
| Draught | N/K |
| Engines | Triple-expansion steam engine with cylinders of bore 23", 38" and 65" and stroke 45". |
| Engine builders | North Eastern Marine Engineering (1938) Ltd. |
| Works | Newcastle-on-Tyne |
| Country | UK |
| Power | 420 NHP |
| Propulsion | Single screw |
| Speed | 11 knots |
| Cargo capacity | Five holds with the superstructure split by No. 3 hold and two masts with a complement of 10 small derricks |
| Crew | There was a complement of 43 at the time she was sunk |
Additional Construction Information
The 1939-40 Lloyds Register entry for Dorington Court has the following additional information about her:
- She had a cruiser stern
- Fitted with direction finding apparatus
Career Highlights
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 7 Mar 1939 | Launched |
| May 1939 | Completed |
| 24 Nov 1942 | Torpedoed and sunk by gunfire |
Service in WW2
Dorington Court took part in 34 convoys during WW2 as well as many other independent voyages according to information shown in the table below which is provided courtesy of Convoyweb - [5]
Loss of Dorington Court
According to Uboat.net - [6], Dorington Court was sunk by German submarine U-181 (Captain Wolfgang Lüth) on 24 Nov 1942 at position 27.00S, 34.45E while she was sailing a route between Calcutta to Madras (4 Nov) to Lourenco Marques to Durban to the UK with 9,261 tons of general cargo. Of her complement of 43 there were 39 survivors and 4 dead.
At 20.34 hours on 24 Nov, 1942, the unescorted Dorington Court (Master Ernest Douglas Aynge Gibbs) was torpedoed and sunk by gunfire by U-181 105 miles east-southeast of Inhaca Island. Four crew members were lost. The master, 33 crew members and five gunners landed at Inhaca Island near Lourenco Marques
Submarine U181
U-181 sunk 27 ships totaling 138,779 GRT. Details are recorded on Ubootwaffe.net - [3]. She survived the war having been taken over by Japan at Singapore in May 1945 and became the Japanese submarine I-501 on 15 July 1945. The Japanese surrendered I-501 in Singapore in August 1945 and she was scuttled there by the US Navy on 12 Feb 1946.
Sharkhunters International Inc. - [16], has this to say about U-181 and her skipper:
The first Skipper of U-181 was Wolfgang Lüth, the second most successful submarine Skipper of WW II. Lüth earned the KNIGHTS CROSS with OAK LEAF, CROSSED SWORDS and DIAMONDS. He had commanded several U-boats previously, including U-13, U-9, U-138 and U-43 before taking command of U-181 on 9 May 1942. He became the right-hand man to GrossAdmiral Dönitz after the alleged suicide of Adolf Hitler when Dönitz was Chancellor of Germany. Because of his position, Dönitz was allowed to maintain armed security around himself well after Germany had surrendered. Lüth was in overall command of the security forces and it was his own order that a sentry should ask for the password only once – and if the correct password was not replied, the sentry should shoot to kill. Lüth was walking through the grounds of the Germany Naval Academy at Flensburg/Mürwick one night, his mind on other things, and he did not hear the sentry challenge him for the password. As Lüth himself had ordered, the sentry fired one shot, killing Lüth instantly. There was a quick Court of Inquiry and the young sentry, who was under command of our good friend GERD THÄTER (194-1987), was found totally innocent of any wrongdoing.
Postscript
Dorington Court can be considered to have had a kind of revenge in that her design was selected by the Admiralty for the large Empire building programme and the subsequent Ocean and Liberty type ships without which the war could not have been won by the Allies.
Roll of Honour
Information follows about members of the Merchant Navy who served on Dorington Court that lost their lives. This is based on information held in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission database.
