HMHS Llandovery Castle
From Our Contribution
 courtesy tehheritageportal.co.za | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Name | HMHS Llandovery Castle |
| Builder/Built | 1914 Barclay Curle & Co, Glasgow |
| Type | Passenger liner (twin screw) |
| Displacement | 10,639 tons |
| Speed | 15 knots |
Remarks
Owned by the Union-Castle Line and designed to carry 429 passengers.
As a hospital ship she could service 622 beds with 102 medical staff. The sinking of the Llandovery Castle by U-Boat U-86 off southern Ireland on 27 June 1918 is considered one of the worst atrocities of the war. She was employed as a hospital ship and had her cross lights were on when she was torpedoed without warning by a German submarine.
Firing at a hospital ship was against international law and the standing orders of the Imperial German Navy. The captain of U-86, Helmut Brümmer-Patzig, sought to destroy the evidence of torpedoing the ship. When the crew took to the lifeboats, U-86 surfaced, ran down all but one of the lifeboats and machine-gunned many of the survivors. Only 24 people survived out of the 258 people on board.