SS Shuntien (1934)
{{Short description|Cargo and passenger ship}}
SS Shuntien was a {{GRT|3,059}} coastal{{cite book |last=Harnack |first=Edwin P |title=All About Ships & Shipping |publisher=Faber and Faber |location=London |orig-year=1903 |year=1938 |edition=7th |page=443}} passenger and cargo liner of the British-owned The China Navigation Company Ltd (CNC). She was built in Hong Kong in 1934 and sunk by enemy action in the Mediterranean Sea with great loss of life in 1941. A Royal Navy corvette rescued most of Shuntien{{'}}s survivors, but a few hours later the corvette too was sunk and no-one survived.
Peacetime service
Taikoo Dockyard and Engineering Company in Hong Kong built Shuntien for CNC in 1934. She replaced an earlier and smaller SS Shuntien that Scotts at Greenock on the Firth of Clyde had built in 1904 and that was scrapped in 1935.{{cite web |last1=Cameron |first1=Stuart |last2=Robinson |first2=George |title=SS Shuntien |work=Clyde-built Ship Database |url= http://www.clydesite.co.uk/clydebuilt/viewship.asp?id=19046 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160304040410/http://www.clydesite.co.uk/clydebuilt/viewship.asp?id=19046 |url-status= usurped |archive-date= 4 March 2016 |access-date=23 April 2013}} The new Shuntien was a sister ship of SS Shengking, which Scotts had built in 1931.{{cite web |last1=Cameron |first1=Stuart |last2=Asprey |first2=David |title=TS Shengking |work=Clyde-built Ship Database |url= http://www.clydesite.co.uk/clydebuilt/viewship.asp?id=19203 |archive-url= https://archive.today/20130504235730/http://www.clydesite.co.uk/clydebuilt/viewship.asp?id=19203 |url-status= usurped |archive-date= 4 May 2013 |access-date=23 April 2013}} Both Taikoo Dockyard and CNC were owned by John Swire and Sons Ltd, which is British-owned but based in Hong Kong.The archives of John Swire & Sons Ltd (including the papers of the Taikoo Dockyard and the China Navigation Company Ltd) are held at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, http://www.soas.ac.uk/library/archives/
The new Shuntien{{'}}s engines were steam turbines built by Taikoo Dockyard. She was built to trade along the coast of China, where her relatively shallow draught enabled her to turn in the Hai River at Tianjin and her icebreaker bow equipped her against sea ice in northern waters.
In 1937 Shuntien returned to Taikoo Dockyard for maintenance, and while she was there the Great Hong Kong Typhoon of 1937 blew her ashore. She survived, was refloated and returned to service.
War service and sinking
{{location map |Libya |width=304 |lat= 32.06 |long= 24.46 |caption=Approximate position of Shuntien{{'}}s wreck: just off the coast of Cyrenaica east of Tobruk |relief=yes}}
In the Second World War the British government requisitioned Shuntien and converted her into a Defensively-Equipped Merchant Ship (DEMS). Photographs of Shuntien taken about that time by a US photographer, Harrison Forman, show Shuntien in the Port of Shanghai apparently being converted into a prison ship. Shuntien moved to the Mediterranean, where her British officers supplemented her Chinese crew with Arab and Maltese recruits.{{cite web |url= http://www.uboat.net/allies/merchants/crews/ship1234.html |title=Shuntien British steam passenger ship Personnel associated with this vessel |last=Helgason |first=Guðmundur |date=1995–2013 |work=uboat.net |publisher=Guðmundur Helgason |access-date=23 April 2013}}
In the Western Desert Campaign in December 1941 Shuntien left Tobruk in Cyrenaica, eastern Libya as a member of Convoy TA 5 bound for Alexandria in Egypt. She was carrying between 800 and 1,000 Italian and German prisoners of war,{{cite web |url=http://maltagc70.wordpress.com/2011/12/23/23-december-700-prisoners-killed/ |title=23 December 1941: 700 Prisoners Killed |work=Malta: War Diary |publisher=WordPress |access-date=23 April 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160312231818/https://maltagc70.wordpress.com/2011/12/23/23-december-700-prisoners-killed/ |archive-date=12 March 2016 }} guarded by more than 40 soldiers of the Durham Light Infantry (DLI).{{cite web |url=http://durhamlightinfantry.webs.com/middleeastforcesdli.htm |title=For those in Peril on the sea |work=Durham Light Infantry 1920–1946 |access-date=23 April 2013 |archive-date=3 July 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120703000554/http://durhamlightinfantry.webs.com/middleeastforcesdli.htm |url-status=dead }}
At about 19:02 on the evening of 23rd December the Type VIIC {{GS|U-559}} torpedoed Shuntien, blowing off her stern and killing her captain, four officers and chief steward.{{cite book|last=Hocking|first=Charles|title=Dictionary of Disasters at Sea During the Age of Steam|year=1969|publisher=Lloyd's Register of Shipping|location=London|page=644 (vol 2)}} Her bow rose in the air and she sank within five minutes without having been able to launch any of her lifeboats.
A convoy escort, the {{sclass2|Flower|corvette}} {{HMS|Salvia|K97|6}}, rescued Shuntien{{'}}s Master, William Shinn, 46 of the ship's officers and men and an unknown number of her prisoners, DEMS gunners and DLI guards.{{cite web |url= http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/1235.html |title=HMS Salvia (K97) |last=Helgason |first=Guðmundur |date=1995–2013 |work=uboat.net |publisher=Guðmundur Helgason |access-date=25 April 2013}} The total number of survivors that Salvia rescued was about 100.{{cite web |url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/67/a4134467.shtml |title=My Uncle Bill |last=Churchill |first=Michael |date=31 May 2005 |work=WW2 People's War |publisher=BBC |access-date=25 April 2013}} The {{sclass2|Hunt|destroyer}} {{HMS|Heythrop|L85|6}} rescued a smaller number: between 11 and 19.
A few hours later, at about 01:35 A.m. On 24 December, {{GS|U-568||2}} torpedoed Salvia about {{convert|100|nmi|km}} west of Alexandria. The torpedo broke the corvette in two and poured burning bunker oil onto the sea; no-one survived. The small party of survivors aboard Heythrop was landed at Alexandria. It included only one of Shuntien's officers, Second Engineer John Hawkrigg.
See also
- {{RMS|Nova Scotia|1926|6}} — torpedoed November 1942 while carrying Italian prisoners of war and interned civilians
References
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{{Commons category|Shuntien (ship, 1934)}}
{{coord|32.06|24.46|format=dms|display=title}}
{{December 1941 shipwrecks}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shuntien (1934)}}
Category:Maritime incidents in December 1941
Category:Merchant ships of Hong Kong
Category:Ships sunk by German submarines in World War II
Category:Ships built in Hong Kong
Category:Steamships of Hong Kong
Category:Ships built by the Taikoo Dockyard and Engineering Company