Ships hit by U-boats


Katvaldis

British Steam merchant


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NameKatvaldis
Type:Steam merchant
Tonnage3,163 tons
Completed1907 - J. Blumer & Co Ltd, North Dock, Sunderland 
OwnerStockwood, Rees & Co Ltd, Swansea 
HomeportPort Talbot 
Date of attack25 Aug 1942Nationality:      British
 
FateSunk by U-605 (Herbert-Viktor Schütze)
Position48° 55'N, 35° 10'W - Grid BD 1676
Complement43 (3 dead and 40 survivors).
ConvoyONS-122
RouteCardiff (12 Aug) - Milford Haven – Sydney, CB - Clarke City, Quebec 
CargoBallast 
History Completed in May 1907 as British Duke Of York for Robinson Bros SS Co Ltd, Whitby. 1911 sold to Norway and renamed Magdalene for A/S Magdalene (Hjalmar Røed & Co), Tønsberg. 1915 renamed Hallfried for A/S D/S Hallfried (P. Kleppe), Bergen. On 19 Apr 1920, badly damaged by fire in New York and sold to a local shipyard. Laid up after repairs were completed in April 1922. 1925 renamed Henry W. Breyer for New York & Florida Navigation Co, New York. 1927 sold to Canada and renamed Odile for A.C. Elliott & Co of Canada Ltd (D.G. Pinkney & Co), London. 1930 sold to Latvia and renamed Katvaldis for J. & A. Karklins, Thomsons & Co (D. Thomsons), Riga. 1940 taken over by Britain and transferred to Ministry of War Transport (MoWT). 
Notes on event

Between 01.38 and 01.41 hours on 25 Aug 1942, U-605 fired four single bow and one stern torpedoes from a distance of about 4000 meters at the outermost starboard column of convoy ONS-122 southeast of Cape Farewell. Detonations on three ships were observed after 5 to 7 minutes and one ship was seen to caught fire and sink within a minute after breaking in two. Schütze claimed one ship sunk and two others damaged. In fact, the Katvaldis in station #92 and Sheaf Mount in station #94 were sunk in this attack.

The Katvaldis (Master Ints Lejnieks) had been the leading ship of the 9th column, but in the evening before the attack she was ordered by convoy commodore to change position with Ingerfire in station #92 which was lagging behind. About 02.00 hours on 25 August, the Katvaldis was hit by a torpedo on the starboard side forward of #2 hold with the torpedo possibly penetrating the empty hold and detonating on the port side of the ship and caused her to sink by the bow within two minutes, rolling over to port. The crew immediately abandoned ship in three lifeboats of which one capsized during launch and the others almost hit by deck ballast thrown into the air by the sinking vessel. Three crew members were lost. The master, 31 crew members and eight gunners (the ship was armed with one 12pdr and four machine guns) were picked up by the Stockport (Master Thomas Ernest Fea, OBE) within one hour and landed at Halifax on 1 September.

 
On boardWe have details of 4 people who were on board


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