United Africa Company
Encyclopedia
The United Africa Company (UAC) was a British company which principally traded in West Africa
during the 20th century.
The United Africa Company was formed in 1929 as a result of the merger of the Royal Niger Company
, which had been effectively owned by Lever Brothers
since 1920, and the African & Eastern Trade Corporation
. In the early 1930s, the United Africa Company was nearly reduced to bankruptcy and as a result it came under the control of Unilever
which had just been formed. Unilever had only been created from the merger of Lever Brothers
and the Dutch Margarine Union
a few months earlier in 1929. The United Africa Company continued as subsidiary of Unilever until 1987 when it was absorbed by the parent company.
In 1916 Lever took over the Manchester firm of H. Watson & Co., which had a fleet of eight vessels, with names derived from villages in Cheshire and Shropshire – Colemere, Delamere, Eskmere, Flaxmere, Linmere, Oakmere, Rabymere and Redesmere. This tiny fleet, whose tonnages ranged from 1,251 to 2,293, was formed into the Bromport Steamship Company Ltd. – named after Bromborough Port, and town on the Wirral Peninsula which, like Port Sunlight, was dominated by Lever-owned businesses. It sailed under a new blue house flag, marked with a white star, the letters BSCL and a central L for Lever.
In the two remaining years of WW1, the Bromport Line lost half of its ships (Colemere, Eskmere, Redesmere and Delamere) to German U-boats.
In 1918 the twin-screwed vessel SS Kulambanga, owned by Lever’s Pacific Plantations, was added to the fleet. In February 1920 Lever acquired the Royal Niger Company
, just in time for the West African trade bubble to burst (the price of palm kernel oil fell from £115 per ton in Feb 1920 to £55 per ton in July 1920). In 1923 Lever Brothers
decided to cut their losses and withdraw from deep sea shipping.
In 1923, African & Eastern
had formed a fleet of its own. It included a 2,116 GRT Scandinavian steamer, which was renamed the Ashantian, a 3,000-ton steamer called SS Woodville which was bought from the Southern Whaling & Sealing Co., and a 2,739-ton steamer which was renamed Ethiopian. In 1925 African & Eastern
commissioned its first ship, the 3,543 GRT Nigerian, and when the Woodville was sold in 1928 she was replaced by another new ship, the 3,832 GRT Lafian. In the same year the Niger Company, encouraged by the improvement in its fortunes and influenced by the example of its rival, took the steps to create its own fleet with the purchase of the Cunard steamer Tyria, which was renamed Ars - from the old Royal Niger Company
Latin motto , Ars Jus Pax (art, justice, peace). Ars was scrapped in 1930
, the Liverpool based company that was one of UAC's rivals in West Africa also operated its own fleet.
The chief requirement of the West African trade was fleet made up a several small ships rather than a few large ones. Deliveries had to be frequent, and there were many ports to be served. The size of the new company meant that the prospects for the new UAC fleet were much better than had been the case with the old Bromport Line. Soon UAC began to rapidly expand its fleet.
Between 1930 and 1934 seven more second-hand ships were bought, the largest of which was the 5,449 GRT Lagosian. Following the traditions of A&E ships were named after countries or ports with which they served - Mendian, Zarian, Kumasian, Lagosian, Congonian, Gambian and Dahomian.
There was a second wave of fleet expansion in 1930's partly due to improved trading conditions but also because Unilever had large sums of money in Germany which had been blocked by the German government. It was impossible to get this money out of the country in the normal way, but it could be used to build ships in Germany. This new building programme was agreed upon in 1934, and the first ship to be completed joined the fleet in 1935. She was the 4,917-ton Ashantian - the second ship to bear this name; the first having been sold in 1932. This was closely followed by her sister ship, the Kumasian.
As the building programme gathered pace, most of the old second-hand vessels were sold; Zarian and Mendian were sold for scrap, and the original Kumasian and Congonian to Italian buyers in 1935 and 1936 respectively. The Gambian was sold in 1936. The launching of Lafian and Zarian in 1938 marked the end of this major building programme.
With the outbreak of war in September 1939 the British government immediately requisitioned all sixteen UAC vessels.
.
On 30 June 1940 the Zarian was torpedoed by U-26http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/2551.htmlhttp://uboat.net/boats/successes/details.php?boat=26, 250 miles off the Scilly Isles. She was struck amidships on the port side aft. Fortunately there were no casulaties and she was towed to Falmouth by the tugboat HMS Salvonia for repair and she returned to service in June 1941. She had been en route in ballast from Portsmouth to Dakar.
Lagosian was not so lucky. In September 1940 she was bombed in the North Sea with the loss of five lives. Like the Conakrian, which was torpedoed in October 1940, she was able to reach port, but on 18 November 1940 the Congonian was the first ship to be lost. She was torpedoed off Freetown
by U-65
http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/660.html.
A different fate befell the Takoradian and Gambian however. They had entered Dakar
for diesel bunkers, and on 5 July 1940, shortly after the fall of France, they were boarded by Vichy French officials and impounded. They were not released until 1943.
At sea the losses continued. On 5 August 1941 the Kumasian was sunk by torpedo off the Irish Coast by U-74http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/1051.html. There was only one fatality, with all 59 remaining survivors being picked up by Royal Navy corvette HMS La Malouine
.
In the early hours of 24 September 1941, convoy SL-87 - bound from West Africa to Liverpool, was attacked 500 miles off the Azores. Three ships were lost, namely Lafian, John Holt and Elder Dempster's Dixcove. U-107http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/1129.html was responsible for all three.
Captain Evan Llewellyn Philips MBE, master of the Lafian, left this account of her last voyage.
All of the crew members, including the master, 37 crew members, 5 gunners and 4 passengers were picked up by HMS Gorleston
and landed at Ponta Deldaga, Azores. There was no loss of life.
The unescorted Nigerian was sunk at 00:05 hours on 9 December 1942. She had survived an air raid in Liverpool during the blitz, but this time she was sunk by torpedo 130 miles off Trinidad by U-508
http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/2497.html. Four crew members and one passenger died. There were 56 survivors. Four passengers (an RAF officer and three army officers) were taken prisoner in the submarine. The master and 29 survivors were picked up on 11 December 1942 by US Navy submarine-chaser USS PC-624 and landed at Moruga Bay, Trinidad. The chief officer and 14 survivors were picked up by Canadian merchant Newbrundoc and the 2nd officer and 6 survivors were picked up by Panamanian steam merchant Maravi.
Twenty days later, at 21:23 on 28 December 1942, on her way from Leith to Takoradi and part of Convoy ON 154 (albeit a straggler), Zarian was torpedoed and sunk by U-591http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/2551.html, with the loss of four lives. Zarian had been initially struck by a torpedo from U-406, but it was U-591 that delivered the coup de grâce on the, now abandoned, Zarian just before midnight. Four crew members were lost, with the 49 remaining survivors picked up by the destroyer HMS Milne
at 08:15, and landed at Ponta Delgada, Azores.
On 28 March 1943 the Lagosian, which had been repaired after her earlier attack, was finally sunk by torpedo by U-167
http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/2824.html on her way from Algiers to Takoradi, via Gibraltar. She was hit by one torpedo and broke in two and sank southeast of the Canary Islands. Eleven lives were lost, and the 35 survivors were picked up by the British tug Empire Denis and landed at Bathurst
, Gambia.
A month later came the fleet's worst tragedy of the war. On 21 April 1943, on the way to New York in convoy ONS-3, the Ashantian was torpedoed by U-415
http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/2877.html and sunk northeast of St.Johns with the loss of sixteen crew members, including the master, Captain Charles Carter-Taylor and convoy commodore Captain Jeffery Elliott, DSO, RD, RN. They were both last seen trying to release a raft aft. She was struck by one torpedo on the starboard side, and suddenly sank only 7 minutes after the torpedo hit. The survivors were picked up by HMS Northern Gift within 3 hours.
Ashantian had survived an earlier attack by U-137
http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/2877.html on 26 September 1940, when, as part of convoy OB 218, she was hit amidships on the port side by a single torpedo. It disabled the ship, killing four crew members on watch in the engine room. Both port lifeboats had been destroyed, and the 38 surviving crew members immediately abandoned ship using only the starboard 2 lifeboats, but one of them swamped, so all had to board the single remaining lifeboat. At daylight they reboarded the vessel, recovered the swamped lifeboat and sent distress signals to a circling aircraft. The commander of the corvette HMS Gloxinia orderd the crew to leave the vessel again because a U-boat was reported in nearby Dromore Bay. On 27 September 1940, the master and crew were returned to the vessel where she was towed to Rothesay by tugs HMS Superman and HMS Seaman. She was beached in Kames Bay on 30 September 1940. In May 1941 the ship was refloated and towed to Glasgow, where she was repaired and returned to service in September 1941.
The crew of the unescorted Matadian were luckier when she was attacked and sunk by U-66http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/3223.html in the Gulf of Guinea, en route from Lagos to UK, on 21 March 1944. The only injury came when the Chief Officer was blown off the bridge by the blast. They were close enough to shore to be picked up by two Royal Navy motor launches, HMS ML-282 and HMS ML-1016.
The also unescorted Dahomian was lost 10 miles west-southwest off Cape Point, South Africa on 1 April 1944, torpedoed by U-852. Two crew died, and there were 49 survivors. They were picked up by two South African armed whalers HMSAS Krugersdorp and HMSAS Natalia, and landed in Simonstown. She was en route from New York to Capetown, via Trinidad. She was the last UAC ship to go down. Of the sixteen ships that started the war, nine had been sunk. Of the seven remaining, five were damaged. The only two ships unscathed were Leonian and Ethiopian which had served most of the war with the Royal Navy. In addition to the ships, 46 lives had been lost.
During the war, UAC had tried to make good their losses by building three replacement vessels, namely, the Congonian (1942), the Kumasian (1943) and Lafian (1943). By 1945, UAC had only 10 ships.
These additions brought the fleet up to fifteen. But the ships alone did not solve the problem of how UAC's shipping interest should best operate in the post-war era. It was becoming clear that the future of the shipping side of the business could best be served by establishing it as an independent company, a common carrier able to operate in the same way as other lines and not tied exclusively to UAC traffic. Hence, on 16 February 1949, an extraordinary general meeting of the shareholders was held to set up a new company. This was done by reviving the dormant articles of association of the old Southern Whaling & Sealing Co. and changing its name to Palm Line
.
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...
during the 20th century.
The United Africa Company was formed in 1929 as a result of the merger of the Royal Niger Company
Royal Niger Company
The Royal Niger Company was a mercantile company chartered by the British government in the nineteenth century. It formed the basis of the modern state of Nigeria....
, which had been effectively owned by Lever Brothers
Lever Brothers
Lever Brothers was a British manufacturer founded in 1885 by William Hesketh Lever and his brother, James Darcy Lever . The brothers had invested in and promoted a new soap making process invented by chemist William Hough Watson, it was a huge success...
since 1920, and the African & Eastern Trade Corporation
African & Eastern Trade Corporation
The African and Eastern Trade Corporation was incorporated in Liverpool in 1919 and had establishments in several African Colonies..It served in the Congo side by side with the British Consulate as a semi-official representative for British trading interests in that Colony...
. In the early 1930s, the United Africa Company was nearly reduced to bankruptcy and as a result it came under the control of Unilever
Unilever
Unilever is a British-Dutch multinational corporation that owns many of the world's consumer product brands in foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products....
which had just been formed. Unilever had only been created from the merger of Lever Brothers
Lever Brothers
Lever Brothers was a British manufacturer founded in 1885 by William Hesketh Lever and his brother, James Darcy Lever . The brothers had invested in and promoted a new soap making process invented by chemist William Hough Watson, it was a huge success...
and the Dutch Margarine Union
Margarine Unie
The Dutch company Naamlooze Vennootschap Margarine Unie grew in the 1920s through mergers of several margarine companies, among which Centra and Schicht and above all the companies of Antonius Johannes Jurgens and Samuel van den Bergh...
a few months earlier in 1929. The United Africa Company continued as subsidiary of Unilever until 1987 when it was absorbed by the parent company.
Chairmen
- 1929 - ? Sir Robert Whaley Cohenhttp://books.google.co.uk/books?id=-e88AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA107&lpg=PA107&dq=%22chairman+of+the+United+Africa+Company%22&source=bl&ots=NXqE8KAtlB&sig=jObvIEUuThhvSdFN-FsCjYAv4zQ&hl=en&ei=MNAySqjmMZaQjAeOgNGKCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1
- 1936 - 1953 Lord TrenchardHugh Trenchard, 1st Viscount TrenchardMarshal of the Royal Air Force Hugh Montague Trenchard, 1st Viscount Trenchard GCB OM GCVO DSO was a British officer who was instrumental in establishing the Royal Air Force...
- Frank Samuel
- 1969 Sir Arthur Smithhttp://afraf.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/pdf_extract/68/273/334
Merchant Fleet
Background
William Hesketh Lever was a well known soap manufacturer and became involved in the West Africa trade to supply his company primarily with palm oil.In 1916 Lever took over the Manchester firm of H. Watson & Co., which had a fleet of eight vessels, with names derived from villages in Cheshire and Shropshire – Colemere, Delamere, Eskmere, Flaxmere, Linmere, Oakmere, Rabymere and Redesmere. This tiny fleet, whose tonnages ranged from 1,251 to 2,293, was formed into the Bromport Steamship Company Ltd. – named after Bromborough Port, and town on the Wirral Peninsula which, like Port Sunlight, was dominated by Lever-owned businesses. It sailed under a new blue house flag, marked with a white star, the letters BSCL and a central L for Lever.
In the two remaining years of WW1, the Bromport Line lost half of its ships (Colemere, Eskmere, Redesmere and Delamere) to German U-boats.
In 1918 the twin-screwed vessel SS Kulambanga, owned by Lever’s Pacific Plantations, was added to the fleet. In February 1920 Lever acquired the Royal Niger Company
Royal Niger Company
The Royal Niger Company was a mercantile company chartered by the British government in the nineteenth century. It formed the basis of the modern state of Nigeria....
, just in time for the West African trade bubble to burst (the price of palm kernel oil fell from £115 per ton in Feb 1920 to £55 per ton in July 1920). In 1923 Lever Brothers
Lever Brothers
Lever Brothers was a British manufacturer founded in 1885 by William Hesketh Lever and his brother, James Darcy Lever . The brothers had invested in and promoted a new soap making process invented by chemist William Hough Watson, it was a huge success...
decided to cut their losses and withdraw from deep sea shipping.
In 1923, African & Eastern
African & Eastern Trade Corporation
The African and Eastern Trade Corporation was incorporated in Liverpool in 1919 and had establishments in several African Colonies..It served in the Congo side by side with the British Consulate as a semi-official representative for British trading interests in that Colony...
had formed a fleet of its own. It included a 2,116 GRT Scandinavian steamer, which was renamed the Ashantian, a 3,000-ton steamer called SS Woodville which was bought from the Southern Whaling & Sealing Co., and a 2,739-ton steamer which was renamed Ethiopian. In 1925 African & Eastern
African & Eastern Trade Corporation
The African and Eastern Trade Corporation was incorporated in Liverpool in 1919 and had establishments in several African Colonies..It served in the Congo side by side with the British Consulate as a semi-official representative for British trading interests in that Colony...
commissioned its first ship, the 3,543 GRT Nigerian, and when the Woodville was sold in 1928 she was replaced by another new ship, the 3,832 GRT Lafian. In the same year the Niger Company, encouraged by the improvement in its fortunes and influenced by the example of its rival, took the steps to create its own fleet with the purchase of the Cunard steamer Tyria, which was renamed Ars - from the old Royal Niger Company
Royal Niger Company
The Royal Niger Company was a mercantile company chartered by the British government in the nineteenth century. It formed the basis of the modern state of Nigeria....
Latin motto , Ars Jus Pax (art, justice, peace). Ars was scrapped in 1930
Post-Merger
When the merger took place the new company found itself with a fleet of five ships. The idea of trading companies in West Africa to operate their own fleets was not new since many of the companies that now formed part of UAC, including Hatton & Cookson, had had their own fleets, sixty or more years before. Millers Ltd and F&A Swanzy Brothers, both African & Eastern subsidiaries, were still operating sailing ships as late as 1924; and John Holt'sJohn Holt Plc
John Holt plc is a Nigerian conglomerate. It has been an important participant in many areas of the economy. The Nigerian company is a subsidiary of John Holt & Co. Ltd, a United Kingdom company...
, the Liverpool based company that was one of UAC's rivals in West Africa also operated its own fleet.
The chief requirement of the West African trade was fleet made up a several small ships rather than a few large ones. Deliveries had to be frequent, and there were many ports to be served. The size of the new company meant that the prospects for the new UAC fleet were much better than had been the case with the old Bromport Line. Soon UAC began to rapidly expand its fleet.
Between 1930 and 1934 seven more second-hand ships were bought, the largest of which was the 5,449 GRT Lagosian. Following the traditions of A&E ships were named after countries or ports with which they served - Mendian, Zarian, Kumasian, Lagosian, Congonian, Gambian and Dahomian.
There was a second wave of fleet expansion in 1930's partly due to improved trading conditions but also because Unilever had large sums of money in Germany which had been blocked by the German government. It was impossible to get this money out of the country in the normal way, but it could be used to build ships in Germany. This new building programme was agreed upon in 1934, and the first ship to be completed joined the fleet in 1935. She was the 4,917-ton Ashantian - the second ship to bear this name; the first having been sold in 1932. This was closely followed by her sister ship, the Kumasian.
As the building programme gathered pace, most of the old second-hand vessels were sold; Zarian and Mendian were sold for scrap, and the original Kumasian and Congonian to Italian buyers in 1935 and 1936 respectively. The Gambian was sold in 1936. The launching of Lafian and Zarian in 1938 marked the end of this major building programme.
With the outbreak of war in September 1939 the British government immediately requisitioned all sixteen UAC vessels.
September 1939
| Ship | Built | Type | GRT | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SS Lagosian | 1928 | General Cargo | 5,449 | |
| SS Dahomian | 1929 | General Cargo | 5,277 | |
| SS Ashantian | 1935 | General Cargo | 4,917 | |
| SS Kumasian | 1935 | General Cargo | 4,917 | |
| SS Guinean | 1936 | General Cargo | 4,900 | German-built |
| SS Liberian | 1936 | General Cargo | 5,129 | German-built |
| SS Nigerian | 1936 | General Cargo | 5,423 | German-built |
| SS Leonian | 1936 | General Cargo | 5,419 | German-built |
| SS Ethiopian | 1936 | General Cargo | 5,424 | German-built |
| SS Matadian | 1936 | Bulk Vegetable Oil Tanker | 4,275 | |
| MV Congonian | 1937 | Bulk Vegetable Oil Tanker | 5,065 | German-built |
| MV Gambian | 1937 | General Cargo | 5,457 | German-built |
| MV Takoradian | 1937 | General Cargo | 5,599 | German-built |
| SS Conakrian | 1937 | General Cargo | 4,876 | |
| SS Lafian | 1937 | General Cargo | 4,876 | |
| SS Zarian | 1937 | General Cargo | 4,876 | |
Wartime Service
The Guinean was the first of the fleet to see action. On 17 June 1940, she was at St.Nazaire taking part in the evacuation of remnants of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in Operation ArielOperation Ariel
Operation Ariel was the name given to the World War II evacuation of Allied forces from ports in western France, from 15–25 June 1940, due to the military collapse in the Battle of France against Nazi Germany...
.
On 30 June 1940 the Zarian was torpedoed by U-26http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/2551.htmlhttp://uboat.net/boats/successes/details.php?boat=26, 250 miles off the Scilly Isles. She was struck amidships on the port side aft. Fortunately there were no casulaties and she was towed to Falmouth by the tugboat HMS Salvonia for repair and she returned to service in June 1941. She had been en route in ballast from Portsmouth to Dakar.
Lagosian was not so lucky. In September 1940 she was bombed in the North Sea with the loss of five lives. Like the Conakrian, which was torpedoed in October 1940, she was able to reach port, but on 18 November 1940 the Congonian was the first ship to be lost. She was torpedoed off Freetown
Freetown
Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone, a country in West Africa. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean located in the Western Area of the country, and had a city proper population of 772,873 at the 2004 census. The city is the economic, financial, and cultural center of...
by U-65
German submarine U-65 (1940)
German submarine U-65 was a Type IXB U-boat of the German Kriegsmarine during World War II. Over the course of six war patrols from 15 February 1940 through 28 April 1941, she sank twelve ships and damaged three others for a total loss of 88,664 GRT....
http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/660.html.
A different fate befell the Takoradian and Gambian however. They had entered Dakar
Dakar
Dakar is the capital city and largest city of Senegal. It is located on the Cap-Vert Peninsula on the Atlantic coast and is the westernmost city on the African mainland...
for diesel bunkers, and on 5 July 1940, shortly after the fall of France, they were boarded by Vichy French officials and impounded. They were not released until 1943.
At sea the losses continued. On 5 August 1941 the Kumasian was sunk by torpedo off the Irish Coast by U-74http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/1051.html. There was only one fatality, with all 59 remaining survivors being picked up by Royal Navy corvette HMS La Malouine
HMS La Malouine (K46)
HMS La Malouine was a Flower-class corvette of the Royal Navy, serving during the Second World War.-Origin:La Malouine was one of four Flower-class corvettes ordered by the French Navy . Only two of these were delivered to the Marine Nationale. One of these ships was La Malouine the other La...
.
In the early hours of 24 September 1941, convoy SL-87 - bound from West Africa to Liverpool, was attacked 500 miles off the Azores. Three ships were lost, namely Lafian, John Holt and Elder Dempster's Dixcove. U-107http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/1129.html was responsible for all three.
Captain Evan Llewellyn Philips MBE, master of the Lafian, left this account of her last voyage.
- On the fifth or sixth night after our departure from Freetown the fun started. The first ship to be torpedoed was one of the Silver LineSilver LineThe Silver Line was a shipping company formed in 1908, part of the British Merchant Navy. By the 1930s they were offering round the world passenger/cargo services, with the passenger fare on a freighter £100. Entirely on foreign service, the ships did not include UK ports of call. Managing owners...
, which was hit amidships and dropped astern...On the next night, about the same time, 2230 hours, the enemy struck again and two ships were hit and sunk. On the following night he (U-67German Type IX submarineThe Type IX U-boat was designed by Germany in 1935 and 1936 as a large ocean-going submarine for sustained operations far from the home support facilities. Type IX boats were briefly used for patrols off the eastern United States in an attempt to disrupt the stream of troops and supplies bound for...
http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/1127.html) came again at about the same time but he only succeeded to strike one on this occasion, the St Clair, managed by UAC and commanded by Captain Readman. She soon disappeared, in fact they did not have time to lower any boats and had to jump for it. They were later picked up by one of the escort vessels, but there were 13 missing when a roll call was taken. About 0430 hours the same night we were hit amidships as was the John Holt, the Commodore ship, and another ship belonging to Elders. There now remained four vessels out of the 13 which left Freetown, but I did hear that the remaining four reached their destination. - When I reached the bridge after we were hit my Chief Officer, Mr Croft, asked if he could lower the lifeboats. I could feel the ship was doomed as she was filling up and taking a list to starboard. I of course agreed and then went forward to the sailor's and firemen's quarters to make sure that none had slept through it. I found no one and returned amidships where all the officers and crew were assembled, all accounted for. We lowered the boats and while the men were filling them an apparition in white flew past me. This later turned out to be the 2nd Officer going for his trousers...
- According to the best traditions and customs I was the last man to leave the ship...Shortly after the two boats got clear of the Lafian she turned over and slowly sank.
All of the crew members, including the master, 37 crew members, 5 gunners and 4 passengers were picked up by HMS Gorleston
USCGC Itasca (1929)
The USCGC Itasca was a of the United States Coast Guard launched on 16 November 1929 and commissioned 12 July 1930. Itasca performed Bering Sea patrols; but is most remembered as the "picket ship" that would provide air navigation and radio links for Amelia Earhart when she made her 1937...
and landed at Ponta Deldaga, Azores. There was no loss of life.
The unescorted Nigerian was sunk at 00:05 hours on 9 December 1942. She had survived an air raid in Liverpool during the blitz, but this time she was sunk by torpedo 130 miles off Trinidad by U-508
German Type IX submarine
The Type IX U-boat was designed by Germany in 1935 and 1936 as a large ocean-going submarine for sustained operations far from the home support facilities. Type IX boats were briefly used for patrols off the eastern United States in an attempt to disrupt the stream of troops and supplies bound for...
http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/2497.html. Four crew members and one passenger died. There were 56 survivors. Four passengers (an RAF officer and three army officers) were taken prisoner in the submarine. The master and 29 survivors were picked up on 11 December 1942 by US Navy submarine-chaser USS PC-624 and landed at Moruga Bay, Trinidad. The chief officer and 14 survivors were picked up by Canadian merchant Newbrundoc and the 2nd officer and 6 survivors were picked up by Panamanian steam merchant Maravi.
Twenty days later, at 21:23 on 28 December 1942, on her way from Leith to Takoradi and part of Convoy ON 154 (albeit a straggler), Zarian was torpedoed and sunk by U-591http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/2551.html, with the loss of four lives. Zarian had been initially struck by a torpedo from U-406, but it was U-591 that delivered the coup de grâce on the, now abandoned, Zarian just before midnight. Four crew members were lost, with the 49 remaining survivors picked up by the destroyer HMS Milne
HMS Milne
Two ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Milne, after Vice-Admiral Sir David Milne: was an Admiralty M-class destroyer launched in 1914 and sold in 1921. was a M-class destroyer launched in 1941 and sold to the Turkish Navy in 1959. She was renamed Alp Arslam and was discarded in 1970....
at 08:15, and landed at Ponta Delgada, Azores.
On 28 March 1943 the Lagosian, which had been repaired after her earlier attack, was finally sunk by torpedo by U-167
German submarine U-167
U-167 may refer to one of the following German submarines:* SM U-167, a Type Mittel U submarine launched in 1918; served in the First World War until surrendered on 18 April 1919; broken up at Grays in 1921...
http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/2824.html on her way from Algiers to Takoradi, via Gibraltar. She was hit by one torpedo and broke in two and sank southeast of the Canary Islands. Eleven lives were lost, and the 35 survivors were picked up by the British tug Empire Denis and landed at Bathurst
Banjul
-Transport:Ferries sail from Banjul to Barra. The city is served by the Banjul International Airport. Banjul is on the Trans–West African Coastal Highway connecting it to Dakar and Bissau, and will eventually provide a paved highway link to 11 other nations of ECOWAS.Banjul International Airport...
, Gambia.
A month later came the fleet's worst tragedy of the war. On 21 April 1943, on the way to New York in convoy ONS-3, the Ashantian was torpedoed by U-415
German submarine U-415
German submarine U-415 was a Type VIIC U-boat built for the German Kriegsmarine for service during World War II. She was commissioned on 5 August 1942 and completed eight war patrols before being sunk by a mine on 14 July 1944....
http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/2877.html and sunk northeast of St.Johns with the loss of sixteen crew members, including the master, Captain Charles Carter-Taylor and convoy commodore Captain Jeffery Elliott, DSO, RD, RN. They were both last seen trying to release a raft aft. She was struck by one torpedo on the starboard side, and suddenly sank only 7 minutes after the torpedo hit. The survivors were picked up by HMS Northern Gift within 3 hours.
Ashantian had survived an earlier attack by U-137
German submarine U-137 (1940)
German submarine U-137 was a Type IID U-boat of the German Kriegsmarine during World War II. Her keel was laid down 16 November 1939 by Deutsche Werke in Kiel...
http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/2877.html on 26 September 1940, when, as part of convoy OB 218, she was hit amidships on the port side by a single torpedo. It disabled the ship, killing four crew members on watch in the engine room. Both port lifeboats had been destroyed, and the 38 surviving crew members immediately abandoned ship using only the starboard 2 lifeboats, but one of them swamped, so all had to board the single remaining lifeboat. At daylight they reboarded the vessel, recovered the swamped lifeboat and sent distress signals to a circling aircraft. The commander of the corvette HMS Gloxinia orderd the crew to leave the vessel again because a U-boat was reported in nearby Dromore Bay. On 27 September 1940, the master and crew were returned to the vessel where she was towed to Rothesay by tugs HMS Superman and HMS Seaman. She was beached in Kames Bay on 30 September 1940. In May 1941 the ship was refloated and towed to Glasgow, where she was repaired and returned to service in September 1941.
The crew of the unescorted Matadian were luckier when she was attacked and sunk by U-66http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/3223.html in the Gulf of Guinea, en route from Lagos to UK, on 21 March 1944. The only injury came when the Chief Officer was blown off the bridge by the blast. They were close enough to shore to be picked up by two Royal Navy motor launches, HMS ML-282 and HMS ML-1016.
The also unescorted Dahomian was lost 10 miles west-southwest off Cape Point, South Africa on 1 April 1944, torpedoed by U-852. Two crew died, and there were 49 survivors. They were picked up by two South African armed whalers HMSAS Krugersdorp and HMSAS Natalia, and landed in Simonstown. She was en route from New York to Capetown, via Trinidad. She was the last UAC ship to go down. Of the sixteen ships that started the war, nine had been sunk. Of the seven remaining, five were damaged. The only two ships unscathed were Leonian and Ethiopian which had served most of the war with the Royal Navy. In addition to the ships, 46 lives had been lost.
During the war, UAC had tried to make good their losses by building three replacement vessels, namely, the Congonian (1942), the Kumasian (1943) and Lafian (1943). By 1945, UAC had only 10 ships.
End of the Fleet
In 1947 three new ships were purchased under the government ship disposal scheme and named Ashantian, Lagosian and Zarian. the following year the company commissioned two additional ships, namely the tanker Matadian and the Nigerian.These additions brought the fleet up to fifteen. But the ships alone did not solve the problem of how UAC's shipping interest should best operate in the post-war era. It was becoming clear that the future of the shipping side of the business could best be served by establishing it as an independent company, a common carrier able to operate in the same way as other lines and not tied exclusively to UAC traffic. Hence, on 16 February 1949, an extraordinary general meeting of the shareholders was held to set up a new company. This was done by reviving the dormant articles of association of the old Southern Whaling & Sealing Co. and changing its name to Palm Line
Palm Line
The Palm Line was a British-owned shipping line that was engaged in the West African trade from 1949, primarily servicing the ports along 5,000 miles of coastline from Morocco in the north to Angola in the far south....
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