War service and sinking
After the Second World War broke out in September 1939 Almeda Star continued to sail her route independently of convoys.[1] On 29 September 1939 off Rio de Janeiro she was met by the Royal Navy cruiser HMS Ajax (22), which was looking for British and Allied ships to escort northwards because of the threat of German raiders in the area.
On 22 December 1940 Almeda Star was on the River Mersey in Liverpool when she was slightly damaged in an air raid.[1] On 15 January she sailed from Liverpool bound for the River Plate, carrying 194 passengers including 142 members of the Fleet Air Arm en route to RNAS Piarco on Trinidad.[5] They were 21 officers and 121 ratings from 749, 750 and 752 squadrons.[5]
Shipping between Britain and the Atlantic had to pass through the Western Approaches, so this area attracted a number of U-boat attacks. On the morning of 16 January, the day after Almeda Star sailed, GS U-96 (1940) had sunk the passenger liner SS Oropesa (1919) in the Western Approaches, killing 106 of the people aboard. At 0745 hrs on 17 January 1941 Almeda Star was about 35 nmi north of Rockall in heavy seas when the same submarine, U-96 commanded by Kptlt Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock, hit her amidships with one G7e torpedo, causing Almeda Star to stop.[5]
The ship did not immediately sink so U-96 fired again at 0805 and 0907 hrs, hitting Almeda Star in the stern and again amidships.[5] The ship had launched four lifeboats but still had people on deck when U-96 surfaced and opened fire on her with her 88 mm deck gun.[5] Between 0932 and 0948 hrs the submarine fired 28 incendiary shells, about 15 of which hit Almeda Star and started small fires aboard.[5] The fires soon went out so at 0955 hrs U-96 hit the ship with a fourth torpedo, which exploded in her forepart.[5] Within three minutes Almeda Star sank by her bow.[5]
Almeda Star had transmitted one distress message[1] and the Royal Navy responded by sending seven destroyers to search the area.[5] They found neither survivors,[5] boats nor wreckage:[1] all 360 people aboard were lost, including those in the four lifeboats that had been launched.[5] U-96 had been at the scene for more than two hours but escaped undetected.
