World War IIMT Scotia
MT Scotia was on a journey from Abadan to Australia loaded with diesel oil. The vessel was torpedoed at the 27th of November 1943 by the Japanese U-boat I-37 in position 0300S, 6903E. The crew went straight for the lifeboats. Only a telegraphist and a machinist stayed at the ship to send out distress signals. Another torpedo hit the vessel and the two dove into the sea and boarded the lifeboats. The U-boat emerged and cut off the captain’s boat. The two other lifeboats managed to escape in the veil of darkness. The survivors could hear machine gun fire after the vessel had sunk. The search quickly began for the third lifeboat after the survivors of the two lifeboats had been rescued at the 29th November. This third boat was found, but the only survivors was the ship dog and sailor Torbjørn Kristiansen. Torbjørn told that the U-boat without any provocation had fired their machine gun and killed four men in the first salvo. The sailor also spotted that six other crew members had been murdered in a lifeboat discovered to be riddled with holes from gun fire. A raft was also shot down. 12 men in total perished, two lifeboats managed to escape under the veil of darkness, and 28 men were rescued. Captain Karl Hjalmar Hansen was taken as a prisoner of war and brought to Japan.
About MT Scotia
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Nationality
Norway
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Built
1939
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Wrecked
27.11.1943
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Carrier
Lorentzens Rederi Co.,Oslo
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Tonnage
14900 dvt
