MV Nottingham (1941)

In 1941 Alexander Stephen and Sons of Linthouse, Glasgow built a pair of refrigerated cargo ships for Federal Steam. Gloucester was launched on 3 March 1941 and completed that July.^[2] Her sister ship Nottingham was launched on 12 August and completed at the beginning of November.^[3]

Each ship had a registered length of 457.5 ft (139.4 m), beam of 60.3 ft (18.4 m) and depth of 35.6 ft (10.9 m). Each had a single screw driven by a Barclay, Curle & Co six-cylinder, single-acting, two-stroke diesel engine. Nottingham's engine was rated at 1,294 NHP^[4] and gave her a speed of 15 knots (28 km/h).^[5]

At the beginning of November 1941 Nottingham left Glasgow on her maiden voyage. She was bound for New York with a general cargo that included Scotch whisky.^[6] Her Master was Captain Francis Cecil Pretty, who in 1917 had been awarded the DSC when he was a Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Reserve,^[7] and in February 1941 had been made an OBE for keeping control of his ship after she was damaged by enemy action.^[8]

On the night of 7 November U-74 engaged Nottingham in mid-Atlantic about 550 nautical miles (1,020 km) southeast of Cape Farewell, Greenland. Nottingham tried to ram the U-boat, but missed. The U-boat fired a torpedo from one of its stern tubes, which hit Nottingham in the stern at 2234 hrs. Nottingham stopped, and at 2250 hrs U-74 fired a spread of two torpedoes, both of which missed. At 2259 hrs a further torpedo from the U-boat hit Nottingham, sinking her.^[9]

U-74 saw Nottingham's crew abandon ship in her lifeboats. But none of the boats was seen again, and all of Nottingham's 56 crew and six DEMS gunners were lost.^[9]

53°24′N 31°51′W / 53.400°N 31.850°W / 53.400; -31.850