SS Fingal (1923)

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SS Fingal
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SS Fingal in 1942
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SS Fingal was a Norwegian merchant ship of 2,137 tons which was sunk during World War II off the coast of Australia.

Brief history

Fingal was built at Moss Værft, Norway 1923.[1]

In December 1941, the steamer had been damaged by Japanese bombing when en route between Rangoon and Calcutta.[2]

In May 1943, Fingal was under charter to the Australian Government. She was sailing from Sydney to Darwin shipping cargo and ammunition escorted by Script error: No such module "WPSHIPS utilities"., crewed by 31 men, mainly Scandinavian, apart from six Australians including two Royal Australian Navy gunners.

At about 1:35pm off Nambucca Heads, New South Wales on 5 May 1943, two torpedoes fired from the Japanese submarine I-180 struck the side of her hull. Fingal sank within a minute and Patterson dropped depth charges and immediately left the area.

Survivors from the sinking ship clung to debris. A RAAF Avro Anson DG696[3] from No. 71 Squadron, crewed by Sergeant Geoffery Gillmore (pilot), Flying Officer Max Sharrad (Navigator) and Sergeant J "Poppa" Hall (WAG),[4] operating out of Coffs Harbour was escorting her at the time, flying about Script error: No such module "convert". ahead of the ship. DG696 saw that she had been hit by a torpedo, returned to the area, found the survivors and advised Patterson. The survivors were picked up after spending four hours in the sea; 19 of the crew survived. Patterson dropped off the survivors at Newcastle at 9:00am on 6 May 1943.

Twelve men were killed in the sinking, including the captain, chief officer and all the engineers.[5]

References

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External links

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